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The Jessamine County Health Department celebrated the opening of its new McCaw Wing with a ribbon cutting and a few different speeches on Tuesday, Sept. 24. 

Ann Stevens is the director of the Jessamine County Health Department (JCHD) as the successor of former director Randy Gooch. She started the ceremonial event by telling the crowd– full of Jessamine County Board of Health members, local leaders such as Mayor Alex Carter, Commissioner Bethany Brown, Jessamine County Judge Executive and board of health member David West, Police Chief Michael Fleming, and other community members– that construction for the new wing of the department was started 14 months ago. 

The facility is named after Jessamine County Veterinarian Dr. William McCaw who has given more than 40 years of voluntary service to the (JCHD). Stevens praised McCaw, stating that “he’s always there for me. When this construction first started, I remember calling him (for help) and said he’d be over here in five minutes,” she said. 

“It’s quite an honor. I have seen my name on that building and I just want you all to know that building wants my idea. I think it represents longevity here. This staff just keeps growing. I was thinking about COVID and how everyone dropped their job and contributed to (vaccine efforts). This department adapts to what needs to be done in the community. It’s a constantly changing event and the populations are growing and this health department is growing. This health department is a community and the community supports the health department. I want to thank you all for this honor and it is an honor. if you hand around long enough— you get your name on a building,” McCaw said.

The expansion includes over 4,900 sq. ft. of space, including a new community room that will now be able to host 154 people for mass vaccination clinics, and employee training according to Stevens. She said it has been “truly amazing to watch the transformation”

Stevens thanked the board of health, the police department, the extension office, the library, for allowing the health department “to use their community rooms so we can still have functions,” during construction, Ronda May and the Jessamine County Chamber of Commerce, OMNI Contracting who built the wing, and the cleaning crew who cleaned the floors several times before the opening. 

Dr. Steven Stack, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Public Health spoke to the efforts made to complete the 2.4 million dollar McCaw Wing, which the state provided 1.8 million dollars through multiple grants, with the local health department paying for the rest. 

Stack said that the JCHD received a grant to help with disease investigation and its ability to support communities during times of response related to infectious threats. This was a 1.273 million dollar grant that went into funding the McCaw wing’s multi-purpose room. Another grant for maternal and child health was granted to the JCHD HANDS program. It provided $524,000 for over 1400 sq ft in this new building with six private offices for the HANDS program as part of the expansion.

The HANDS program provides in-home visitors to new and young parents and moms to help teach parenting skills. “They become like an adjunct to the family and I’ve gone on home visits to see some of these visits. These HANDS workers walk in the home and are really like aunties to the children. They’re embraced like family members,” Stack said. 

The building also now has a generator thanks to a $20,000 grant that allows the JCHD to keep vaccines and other perishables from going bad during a power outage. 

“You have a wonderful team that is very committed to supporting your community. Thanks to the members of the board of health, and to the Judge Executive, to the support you provide to your public health department,” Stack said. 

Judge West spoke at the ceremony, stating “(The new wing) is (an investment) in infrastructure and for people’s lives. It’s very humbling to be a small part of it but it’s very exciting at the same time. We’re gonna help people. This facility is going to help people.”

This new wing will provide much more space for areas of the JCHD that were very cramped up before– including the HANDS program, the Harm Reduction team that also provides the Syringe Exchange Program and the mobile integrated health program, and other programs.