County OKs health clinic despite neighbors’ opposition

By Emily Richmond

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009 | 1:52 p.m.

Despite vocal opposition from some Spring Valley residents, the Clark County Commission unanimously approved a special use permit for a student health clinic at Elaine Wynn Elementary School.

“We have to do what’s the right thing to do, and not what’s politically expedient,” Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said at today’s meeting.

The vote followed nearly two hours of public comment and discussion.

The clinic, to be sited on the Wynn campus east of Jones Boulevard, will be operated by the nonprofit Communities in Schools, which already has similar facilities at two other campuses. The clinics provide basic health care, including vaccinations and the physical checkups required to participate in school athletics, to students up to age 18. Most of the students will come from Wynn, although small groups from other nearby campuses will also make use of the clinic facilities. The clinics operate at almost no cost to the Clark County School District, which provides the land as well as utilities hookups.

Neighbors argued that while the project’s mission was laudable, the location was inappropriate. They were also upset that the district had not notified the neighbors prior to breaking ground on the project last month.

The area around the school already suffers from traffic problems that would only be exacerbated by the clinic, residents told the commission.

Additionally, some people pointed out that the clinic would be serving the children of poor families who don’t live in the immediate neighborhood, but rather walk to Wynn from low-income areas beyond Decatur Boulevard. It would make more sense to place the clinic closer to their homes, said Colette Welsing, a 15-year Spring Valley resident and retired school District teacher.

Commissioner Susan Brager, making the motion to approve the clinic, told the residents “I was one of the poor people you talked about today … We need to be very respectful that not everybody gets to be a 'have' in our community. There are many 'have-nots.'”

Brager also encouraged the School District to come up with a better process for public notification of such projects and provide more opportunity for input.

“We will do much better,” School Board Vice President Carolyn Edwards. “We apologize to you, and we apologize to the neighborhood.”

The district was also accused of violating the state’s open meeting law by holding closed-door discussions on the project. Attorney Gary Moss said he requested the minutes of the meetings where Wynn was selected as the clinic’s location and was told none existed.

We have no meaningful opportunity to contribute to this process,” said attorney Gary Moss. “This decision is arbitrary and capricious, if there ever was one.”

Edwards told the commissioners that the closed-door discussions referenced by Moss took place among district staff and Communities in Schools. Once the issue was brought to the School Board for approval, it was added to the publicly noticed agenda and all discussions were conducted in an open meeting.

The Wynn campus health clinic would become the seventh to operate in Clark County.

The nonprofit Nevada Health Centers operates clinics at C.P. Squires Elementary School, Roy Martin Middle School and Valley High School. Two — at Martinez and Cunningham elementary schools — are operated by Communities in Schools. The sixth, at Basic High School, is funded by Nevada State College.

The Southern Nevada chapter of NAIOP, the commercial real estate development association, has offered to donate the clinic building at Wynn Elementary, which would be named in memory of Casey Jones, who served as the business group’s president in 2005.

Commission Chairman Rory Reid told the audience there are three similar clinics in his district, and all of the locations were considered controversial at the time they were proposed. However, in the intervening years there have been no complaints from area residents. Clark County needs more public-private partnerships to serve the needs of the entire community, Reid said.

He urged the Spring Valley residents to work with the School District as the project moves forward so that their concerns will be appropriately addressed.