All decorated with an American Flag, and a small, decorative tree; the final beam was placed at the top of Carle Health’s new Carle at the Riverfront project along Logan on the west side of Danville, in the bright sunshine around 12 Noon on Wednesday. The facility will not be open and operating completely until 2023, but as Danville Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr reminds us, there’s plenty of work around the site the city can do between now and then.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: I mean as you can see we are standing in what will be the parking lot they’ve got some of the perimeter done, and we’re excited about that. But the city is also working to do our part on the rest of the property south of Madison that’s not controlled by Carle. You know, things like moving power lines underground, repairing and replacing streets and sidewalks where necessary; just so that this will be the modern future of what people can expect when they come to Danville.
L to R: The final beam awaits its ride to the top, Danville Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr puts his signature on the beam, a picture protecting how Carle at the Riverfront will look when finished.
Carle’s Vermilion County Medical Director Dr. Timothy McNeely says it will be great once the Carle staffs from the Vermilion facility and the Fairchild facility are all under one roof. He says there is something about face-to-face communication, that’s been missed a lot in our world lately.
Audio PlayerAUDIO: And we sometimes forget, and especially over the last two years, we’ve lost a little bit of that ability to walk down the hall and talk to somebody. So much of this is still virtual. But to have my specialist, I’m a family doctor, just down the hallway and maybe upstairs a bit; and to be able to walk into some of these offices and say, “Hey, this is what I saw today, what do you think?”
Carle’s facility on Fairchild Street is a leased building, but the one on Vermilion is owned. Dr. McNeely says, nothing definite yet on what will happen to it, but he’s certainly seen some surprises in the past.
