By DIANE VALDEN
COPAKE—Columbia Memorial Health issued a press release today (March 21) saying it has met the fundraising goal necessary for reopening the Copake Rapid Care Center. The center located at 283 Mountain View Road is tentatively scheduled to reopen in early June, the release says.
Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) calls meeting the fundraising goal a “mile post” and “a critical step in re-establishing Rapid Care services at the facility later this year.”
Asked what the needed fundraising goal was, CMH Spokesman Bill VanSlyke said, “We are not releasing any dollar amounts at this time.”
Copake Rapid Care initially opened its doors in 2016 in one end of the Community Rescue Squad building. The community contributed $25,000 toward the installation cost of a new 100-foot-tall tower equipped with a microwave relay system to provide the needed xray transmission specifications; the Community Rescue Squad supported the project and gave CMH two years free rent. CMH came up with half of the needed $700,000 project cost and, then State Senator Kathleen Marchione (R-43rd) stepped in to assist by securing $350,000 as part of the 2015-16 State Budget to help with the initial cost of site renovation and equipment purchases.
CMH closed the facility down in December 2022 after having reduced and sporadic hours during the pandemic. CMH said at the time, the closure was due to lack of staffing, but it later came to light there were also financial issues.
“Our priority is to make every effort possible to meet the health needs of the communities we serve. Very often that means we find partners who are willing to work with us to make things happen that would otherwise be impossible or unsustainable. I can think of few better examples of that sense of partnership than what we’ve achieved in concert with the Roe Jan community,” Kirk Kneller, chair of the CMH Board of Trustees, said in the release.
“The planned reopening of CMH’s Copake Rapid Care Center is welcome news indeed. The Rapid Care Center will once again provide needed medical services to Copake and the Roe Jan area, where access to care is severely limited. Thank you, CMH, for listening to us, and for understanding the importance of reestablishing essential medical services to Copake and the Roe Jan area. And to town leaders and residents who participated in efforts to bring back Copake Rapid Care, congratulations and thank you!” Town of Copake Supervisor Richard Wolf said in the release.
“This successful fundraising effort is credited in large part to the tremendous outpouring of support and generosity from the people of Copake and the broader Roe Jan community. It stands as a model of both community-based care and community support. We are thankful to a great many caring, engaged and generous people for this accomplishment,” Dorothy Urschel, CMH president and CEO, said in the release.
Following the closure of Copake Rapid Care, “numerous members of the surrounding community immediately engaged with CMH to identify solutions, which led to the establishment in 2023 of the Copake Rapid Care Fund. This fund was created solely for the purposes of re-establishing Rapid Care services in Copake and has now met the threshold necessary to do so,” according to the release.
To contact Diane Valden email dvalden@columbiapaper.com
