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Talk of Takoma • by Howard Kohn
WAH keeps working toward Long Branch clinic despite neighborhood friction
A number of people who live near the intersection of Flower Avenue and Piney Branch Road remain at odds with the Washington Adventist Hospital’s plan to build a medical clinic and urgent-care facility at a site near the Giant supermarket, and a lawsuit by one of the Long Branch neighborhood groups, the Sligo Branview Community Association, continues to stall the plan.
Hospital officials say they are not giving up on the location, however. On October 28, at a ceremony at the central campus at Flower and Carroll to denote the hospital’s centennial year in Takoma Park, officials said they will temporarily establish a clinic in Long Branch next to the Best Way store.
The clinic, which may open as early as December, will operate through a cooperative deal with the Mary Center, a non-profit service that specializes in care for women of limited means.
In the meantime, the lawsuit is proceeding toward a final verdict in the Maryland Court of Appeals. “We’re hopeful everything will work out so we can begin building a permanent facility,” says Roger Jepson, a longtime hospital official who grew up in the area.
The Montgomery County Council has pledged $2.1 million toward the cost of a medical center in Long Branch.
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