EASTON, Maine — Faced with the closure of the town’s only bank and recently created health clinic, Easton’s select board and manager are trying to be proactive in finding ways to fill the gaps that are being left.
A month after Katahdin Trust announced the closure of a branch in Easton as of Jan. 31, the town learned of the pending closure of the Village Health, a primary care clinic operating out of a town-owned building since 2014.
Village Health, led by Angela Buck, a family nurse practitioner, served an estimated 500 patients in its two years and was filling a need in the town for local primary health care, said Easton Town Manager Jim Gardner.
The town recruited the clinic in 2014, after acquiring and renovating the building on Center Street, near the town office, post office and grocery store, and rented the clinic to Village Health at a reduced rate, Gardner said. Recently, patients were told in a letter that Village Health will be closing on Dec. 31, due to financial shortfalls and a personal medical issue being experienced by the provider, according to Gardner.
With six office staff and Buck as the sole provider, Village Health opened in early 2014 and served a range of families and senior citizens from Easton and nearby communities, including Amish families, Gardner said.
The clinic has provided office-based care, home care services, and some lab testing. It offered an annual subscription for comprehensive primary care, of $750 per adult, and accepted traditional insurances.
“That’s the first time we’ve ever had a clinic. That’s why the town is so anxious to move it forward,” Gardner said. “Our goal is to put our working gloves on. We’ve got a couple empty buildings and we’re going to fill them.”
Gardner said he and the select board are reaching out to health care providers and doctors around northern Maine to gauge their interest in running a clinic in the space. “The building is all ready,” he said, adding that the town invested $70,000 in renovating it.
“If she had a good number of patients, then there’s a need for a health care center,” Gardner said.
The town is taking a similar strategy to try to fill the empty space being left by Katahdin Trust, which is also closing branches in Limestone and Washburn. In that case, Katahdin Trust owns the building and is selling it, and Gardner said he thinks another bank could be interested in setting up a branch there.
