Construction starts on new primary-care center for Little Falls Hospital

DOLGEVILLE — Crews have started building a new primary care center for Little Falls Hospital in Dolgeville.

The hospital, a subsidiary of the Bassett Healthcare Network, on June 28 broke ground on the project. The upcoming facility will replace the current facility on Gibson Street, Little Falls Hospital said in a news release about the groundbreaking.

Little Falls Hospital expects crews to complete the clinic project by the end of the year, Kate Reese, director of community relations & regional marketing for the Bassett Healthcare Network, said in an email response to a CNYBJ inquiry. 

The upcoming facility will accommodate up to four practitioners and will include eight exams rooms, offices, and a laboratory. The design also includes a 2,000-square-foot addition for the purpose of hosting community health and wellness-related activities. The clinic will use the space for health and wellness education, lifestyle-related classes, and to support other community-based organizations whose goals are to address social determinants of health.

AOW Associates Inc. of Albany will serve as the project’s construction manager, and the Williston, Vermont office of Boston, Massachusetts–based e4h Environments for Health Architecture is the architect on the project, per a document that Little Falls Hospital provided CNYBJ. 

Project funding

Little Falls Hospital used the June 28 groundbreaking event to announce a major donation for the project and a state-funding award as well. 

The Morristown, New Jersey–based F.M. Kirby Foundation Inc. contributed $1.25 million toward the $2.9 million needed to build the 5,000-square foot primary care center, Michael Ogden, president of Little Falls Hospital, announced.

The hospital will name the new center in honor of Walker D. Kirby, who was an active volunteer and board member of the F.M. Kirby Foundation.

Ogden called the upcoming Walker D. Kirby Primary Care Center an “important step in the continued investment of health care” for the greater Dolgeville community and surrounding area by Little Falls Hospital. 

“We are responding to the needs of the community by providing access to much-needed health-care services. The community has always been very supportive of the current health center and hospital, so it is very exciting to think of helping address the unmet demand for health center services and adding to the economic vitality by constructing the Walker D. Kirby Primary Care Center in the community,” Ogden said in the release.

In addition, Empire State Development (ESD) awarded Little Falls Hospital $480,000 for the relocation, design, and construction of the new health center. 

The project will also utilize donations from the greater Dolgeville community.