The Frederiksted Health Clinic should move back into its former home in Frederiksted’s Strand Street by year’s end, Director Masserae Sprauve Webster told the Legislature Tuesday.
The clinic has been operating out of the Herbert Grigg Home for the Aged near the center of St. Croix since Frederiksted’s Ingeborg Nesbitt Clinic building was shut for mold remediation work in 2008, ostensibly for four to five months.
"Renovation is set to be done in October, and we anticipate moving in before the end of the year," Webster said. No specific date has been set yet, she said.
Frederiksted Health Care, the nonprofit that operates the Frederiksted Health Clinic and a school-based health clinic at St. Croix Educational Complex, was before the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday to discuss its fiscal 2012 budget request.
Webster is requesting $1.7 million—$190,000 more than the $1.5 million recommended by Gov. John deJongh Jr.
Of the $1.7 million requested from the V.I. government, $1.2 million is slated for salaries; $353,000 for benefits, $50,000 for communications, $50,000 for professional dental services and $75,000 for utilities.
The clinic also expects $1.3 million in federal funding—a 23 percent decline from last year—with $855,000 for wages and salaries; $244,000 for benefits and the remainder to supplies, and services.
The clinic expects another $600,000 in income from fees for medical services, which, combined with the federal funding and the $1.7 million the clinic is requesting from the V.I. government, would bring the total budget to about $3.6 million.
No votes were taken at the budget oversight hearing.
Present at the meeting were Sens. Patrick Hill,, Nereida "Nellie" Rivera-O’Reilly and Carlton "Ital" Dowe, the committee chairman. Absent were Sens. Celestino White, Shawn-Michael Malone, Janette Millin-Young and Patrick Sprauve.
