HOLLIS  Care for the health needs of Harmon County and surrounding areas will be greatly enhanced this fall with a new clinic, thanks to funding from a $1.3 million federal grant approved by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The center will receive $650,000 annually for the next two years. It will be used for the clinic to add new services such as oral and behavioral health services, to be provided by the federally funded Shortgrass Community Health Centers. The new clinic is set to open by mid-October.

The clinic will operate as the Shortgrass Community Health Center, to be located in the Harmon Medical Clinic building in Hollis. J. Carter Robinson, a consultant to the Shortgrass Community Health Centers board who previously served as interim chief executive officer, reported that Bill Sparks, who lives in Russellville, Ark., was recently employed as the chief executive officer of the facility and that the board of directors is in the process to hire the center's medical team members such as administrative staff, a chief medical officer, a dentist, an oral hygienist and a behavioral health specialist, with plans to disclose the identities of those personnel in the near future. The board also is in the process of creating clinic policies and procedures.

"Everything is moving together quite nicely," Robinson said.

Robinson said that some minor upgrades will be made to the building to accommodate the new clinic, mostly cosmetics, prior to its opening in October. He said this will be followed by an aggressive effort for further upgrades to the facility over the next two or three years.

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