‘Godspeed, congratulations and good luck’

As construction projects go, it’s not hard to find something to cheer about when it comes to Southcentral Foundation’s Valley Native Primary Care Center, which ceremonially broke ground Tuesday.

There’s a lot to cheer about when it comes to what this new medical facility will mean for Valley residents and the local economy.

Probably the most parochial of concerns is that it fills in a prime spot of real estate at the corner of Knik-Goose Bay Road and the Palmer-Wasilla Highway Extension — it will be neighbors, more or less, with Home Depot and the Wasilla Senior Center. It seems like every year that part of Wasilla fills in just a little bit more. It’s a good place to build with two well-maintained roads to access it. We applaud Southcentral Foundation for its choice.

Also, there’s the benefit of the project’s speed. The clinic is set to open in October of 2012. Which means that no one here will have to wait much longer to take advantage of the benefits the project planners are touting.

Then there’s the boost to the Valley’s economy, which will take us some time to enumerate.

First there are the one-time capital costs. The Southcentral Foundation will plow $56 million of mostly borrowed federal money into building the facility. That’s a big chunk of change.

Next are the ongoing benefits. Project figures estimate the operating costs of the facility at $25 million.

A hefty portion of that money, of course, goes to pay doctors and nurses and technicians and staff at the facility — estimated to be a workforce 180 strong. And the bulk of those workers will live right here in the Valley, their salaries invested back into our economy.

Some of the economic benefits are slightly less apparent. The Southcentral Foundation estimates there are 5,000 customers of the clinic already living in the Valley. Some of those 5,000 people might be being served at the foundation’s current, much smaller clinic in Wasilla. But likely the bulk of them have to drive to Anchorage for care. On the way they might fill up with gas. When they get there they might eat or go shopping.

All of that money, of course, will now stay in the Valley.

And that 5,000 figure is expected to grow. \ Southcentral Foundation estimates its customers here will top 8,500 by 2013.

And then there are the intangibles. Saving people a drive to Anchorage either to work in the medical field or to get medical care takes one more burden off their shoulders, which in turn makes the Valley just that much more attractive of a place to live.

Too much of the Valley’s population has to drive south to find too many of life’s necessities. We have for some time been a place populated, to a large degree, with people who work elsewhere. The new clinic is a big step toward adding good paying jobs to our community and expanding the medical care that Alaska Native people now drive to Anchorage to access.

So, to borrow the words Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, who spoke at Tuesday’s ceremony, we wish Southcentral Foundation “Godspeed, congratulations and good luck.”