District Facilities & Operations Director Tom Schneider informed the North Penn School Board Facilities and Operations Committee Monday night that the Lansdale Borough Planning Commission recommended to council preliminary and final minor land development approval for the 400 Penn Street project.
The district was to meet with the Lansdale Borough Code Review Board on Wednesday to discuss more details on the building plans. Then the approval will land on the agenda for the March 16 borough council monthly business meeting.
The project is expected to be completed by August 2022, per a contract proposal.
"We did send out the building plans and also specifications to three providers,” Schneider said, "and we are anticipating having budget estimates back. We received one. We can then move forward with selecting a company.”
Committee Chairwoman and School Board Director Cathy Wesley asked Schneider if there are concerns with supply chain delays. "Building materials have been an issue in the past,” Wesley said. "Are there any concerns with the diagnostic equipment or technical materials for actual operation of the clinic?”
"We’re not aware of any. Everside Health provided us with a list of equipment to purchase. We have not started to ensure that yet,” Schneider said. "We are not sure about potential delivery delays.”
In January, the board approved a $71,260 design contract with SchraderGroup for a 3,500-square-foot pre-manufactured building to be erected at Penndale Middle School, between the existing school and a north parking lot, about 100 feet off of Penn Street.
The clinic would serve district employees and their families.
In all, construction costs are estimated at $800,000. The design contract is broken down into $15,760 for structural engineering tasks, $15,000 for civil engineering costs, and $40,500 for the land development approval process.
At an operating cost of about $40,000 a month over four years,
Colorado-based Everside Health will oversee the clinic, staffing it with two full-time employees — a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant and a registered nurse.
The clinic, which began as a concept in October 2020, would be open normal workday hours. A similar in-house clinic is underway in the Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit. North Penn School District is looking at possible long-term savings by providing local health services, per the report.
The clinic would have generic prescription medications available to its members. The district is expected to recoup $400,000 of the $800,000 construction cost via grants, and looks to apply $300,000 toward construction from the district health care fund.
