MANTI—Gunnison Valley Hospital is getting ready to build a 4,400-square foot clinic, including a drive-through pharmacy, at 156 S. Main in Manti where Fred’s Sports Grill is now located.
The drive-in restaurant is now closed and will be torn down, hospital officials told the Manti City Council last Wednesday, July 1.
“We’re excited to be here,” Brenda Bartholomew, the hospital administrator told the city council. “Hopefully, we’ll make your Main Street look better and bring better healthcare.”
The Main Street Clinic at 46 N. Main, a family practice clinic affiliated with the hospital, which currently has a pharmacy inside, will move to the new building.
The clinic will start with one provider, Sean Olsen, a doctor of nursing practice, who currently heads the Main Street Clinic, “but we’re building it for at least two, possibly three” providers, Bartholomew told the council.
She said the hospital might schedule certain specialists to be on site from once per week to once per month, depending on the need.
Mike Wanner, a hospital employee who is also a general contractor, has been assigned to coordinate the project. He told the council a rendering of the outside of the building isn’t ready yet, but said he thought the council would like the design.
“It will stand tall in front and look kind of modern… then it steps down in the back,” he said. The waiting area will be at the front of the building, clinic rooms in the back and the pharmacy on the side.
Wanner said the size of the lot barely made the drivethrough pharmacy possible. “It’s doable, though.”
Bartholomew said she felt a drive-through pharmacy was essential. She said she had driven to a pharmacy with her adult daughter recently just so she could sit in the carwith the children while her daughter went inside.
“If somebody has a nasty infection, you don’t want them coming in,” Councilwoman Mary Wintch added.
Wanner said the hospital would buy additional property at the back of the Fred’s lot for parking. With that purchase, 16 stalls would fit on the site.
Up to now, customers have entered on the north side of the drive-in restaurant and exited on the south side. With the new clinic and pharmacy, that pattern will be reversed. Entry will be on the south side of the lot and the exit on the north side.
Kent Barton, city manager, said the hospital had given its plans, all except exterior plans, to the city staff. The property is zoned for the use and the project meets setbacks and other ordinance requirements. “So it won’t need to go through Planning and Zoning,” he said.
Wanner said he did not have a definite timetable for construction but said, “I would like for sure to have concrete in the ground before frost.”
