As the year 2023 comes down to its final three months, construction work is ongoing at the new Arthur Center Community Health clinic in Montgomery City.

The 10,000-square foot facility, which is located next to Achieve Fitness, is approaching one year of construction. Work started on the building on Oct. 4, 2022. Originally, the project was scheduled to be completed in August before plans got changed.

“Our hope is to have it open by Jan. 1,” Arthur Center CEO Terry Mackey said. “We were supposed to have it open by October, but that’s not happening. That’s kind of sad.”

A temporary primary care and behavioral clinic at 1225 Aguilar Drive has been open for business for almost a year. The clinic is operated out of a construction trailer.

“It has all of the supposed amenities, but it’s not set up ideally at times,” Mackey said. “Our waiting rooms are pretty small, so we have to try to keep things moving pretty quickly to keep people from feeling they’re all cramped up in a small waiting room. We had those challenges, but at least they don’t have to drive to Mexico to get services. That’s what they were doing before we got the temporary building.”

Mackey said even though construction to the new facility hasn’t been completed, he is excited that Montgomery County residents will soon have local access to primary health care services.

“Positively, we’ve been able to provide services on the location so people who are already in services are just going to go into a new building,” Mackey said. “But it’s going to be at the same new location, so they won’t have to try to figure out where the new location is. It will all be at the same place. That’s a positive. We had great support from the city of Montgomery. They’ve been really easy to work with. They’re not the reason for any delays or anything like that. They’ve been nothing but supportive.”

Mackey said dentists are being recruited for the new facility.

“We may have to have some people doing a day here and there in Montgomery from Mexico until we get a dentist on board,” Mackey said. “Trying to recruit a health professional to rural areas is challenging at best. Being able to bring dental to Montgomery is something we’re pretty excited about. There are a lot of folks who are of lower socioeconomic status. We’re on Medicaid. It’s hard to find dental care in both scenarios because dental services are so expensive.”

Arthur Center Community Health is a health center that is based in Mexico. Named after J.B. Arthur in 1992, the Arthur Center has over 1,400 organizations across the country.