Lyddy Expects State Approval Of $500k

For New KCC Clinic Friday

By John Voket

State Representative Christopher Lyddy said Wednesday that he expects the State Bond Commission will finalize $500,000 in state aid for Kevin’s Community Center in Newtown when the panel meets Friday, September 25.

 “I have been working very closely with legislative leadership to ensure that the funding for Kevin’s Community Center was not jeopardized,” Rep Lyddy said in a release. Rep Lyddy pointed out that the clinic has provided more than $2.5 million in free medical care to uninsured and underinsured Newtown residents since it was established seven years ago.

“The sheer volume of free services that the center is providing is eye-opening, and reflects the dire situations that many families find themselves in during this economic storm,” he said.

A half-million dollars in state aid was originally promised to Newtown in early 2008 by Governor M. Jodi Rell to help renovate Newtown Hall on the Fairfield Hills campus as a new permanent home for Kevin’s Community Center.

The proposed KCC expansion was going to be part of a suite of medical offices for several hospital-affiliated medical care providers. But in February 2009, one of the medical care providers pulled out of the project, putting the state aid in question.

Kevin’s Community Center is still slated to be located on the Fairfield Hills’ property, but it will not move to the building originally specified by the State Bond Commission. The change in location, to one of the former duplexes on the former state hospital campus, required a slight modification to the bond authorization language.

“It looked like all we needed was a simple language change, but I didn’t want to take any chances,” Rep Lyddy said. “Everything seems to be on the table in this economic climate, so I wanted to make sure that no one forgot about funding for Kevin’s Community Center.”

This news was of critical importance to supporters, volunteers, and especially patients, who until this week, were in fear of losing the space KCC needed to carry on its mission. The clinic is currently located at 31 Peck’s Lane along with several other municipal offices, including the Health Department and the Board of Education.

But those offices will be relocating to the new municipal center at Fairfield Hills in the coming weeks, and the leased space on Peck’s Lane will no longer be available. The clinic’s space at that location was only provided contingent to the continued occupancy of other town and school district offices.

According to a release from the clinic’s founder, Dr Z. Michael Taweh, KCC is now committed to re-developing a duplex at Fairfield Hills. 

“In the interim, Kevin’s Community Center is now in immediate need of a temporary site, as the November relocation deadline is likely to leave [the clinic] without a place to offer services to its patients,” Dr Taweh said.

The clinic is looking at several locations that were previously occupied by medical practices, to minimize the cost of temporary relocation and to expedite occupancy and continuity of services to patients. Dr Taweh expects the temporary arrangements could be used for as long as two years, or until KCC’s permanent location is established.

Dr Taweh said the best scenario for a future permanent home for the public health clinic is and always was Fairfield Hills. And securing the state grant has several critical implications for the organization’s future survival, and the likely expansion of services beyond its current four-hours-a-week operating window.

“Without the money from the state, the prospect of moving to Fairfield Hills would be very expensive,” he said. Dr Taweh added that a number of other grantees are awaiting the outcome of the Bond Commission’s decision, and that a state grant approval could bode well for several additional capital grants from these private interests.

Dr Taweh, a physician specializing in the practice of internal medicine, and his wife, Jocelyn, founded the nonprofit free medical clinic in the memory of their son Kevin.

“Most of the patients who have been coming to Kevin’s will not have access to medical care should the center close, even on a temporary basis,” Dr Taweh said. “Many of them have significant health issues that were undiagnosed before KCC opened.”

Dr Taweh is particularly concerned because many of the center’s current patients need uninterrupted medical care.

“I’m going to hold off on getting excited until the Bond Commission makes its decision,” Dr Taweh said Wednesday.

Since the state grantee for the $500,000 is actually the town and not KCC, the agreement to receive the funding does come with several contingencies, including the town’s guarantee to ensure the continuous operation of KCC for at least five years. In the event the clinic closes, or fundamentally changes its operation within that time, the town would be responsible for repaying part of the grant on a prorated basis.

Rep Lyddy told The Newtown Bee that he is confident the project is still viable.

“However, in the end it will be up to Kevin’s Community Center to decide on a plan that best fits the needs of their patients and our community,” Rep Lyddy said. “I trust they will communicate this plan soon so that the various stakeholders can support them in their endeavor.”