Clinic CEO: Negotiation with Walker County still on the table

Officials for Walker County and Primary Healthcare Centers are still negotiating a lease agreement for the nonprofit's Rossville, Ga., clinic.

Rob Cowan, a lawyer for Primary Healthcare Centers, said he will meet with Walker County attorney Robin Rogers on Friday. The two sides have been negotiating rent at the county-owned building at 1430 Suggs St. since May.

Unhappy with the clinic's offer, Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield told the Times Free Press on Dec. 28 that he planned to send a 60-day eviction notice to Primary Healthcare Centers on the second week of January. But he has not yet followed through.

"We're trying to give everything a little more time," county spokesman Joe Legge said Wednesday, "and at least give the attorneys time to meet and see what they can work out."

Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield

During a meeting with the Walker County Tea Party on Tuesday, Primary Healthcare Centers CEO Diana Allen said her staff plans to keep working there until Whitfield kicks them out. She said she has not heard from the commissioner since late November. Still, she was encouraged when Rogers scheduled another meeting with Cowan two weeks ago.

"We've not had any success," Allen said. "But that was some movement, in terms of some outreach to us."

Primary Healthcare Centers has operated in the county's former health center building since 2008, after the Georgia Department of Community Affairs gave the county a $460,000 grant to renovate the building. The grant requires the county to use that space to help low-income people for 20 years. If the county doesn't fall through with that promise, it has to give some of the money back to the state.

Under former Commissioner Bebe Heiskell, Primary Healthcare Centers paid a $1-a-year lease. The county also covered the cost of utilities. But Whitfield, who took office in January 2017, said the county could no longer give the clinic such a lenient deal. He said the utilities alone cost the county $30,000 annually.

The county's appraisers value the property at $350,000. But Whitfield said the county workers haven't bothered to properly assess the building in years, seeing that it was owned by the local government and didn't actually yield property tax revenue. Whitfield brought in a private appraiser last year, who said the 8,200-square-foot building is worth $1.1 million. He said the fair market value for rent there would be $8,800 a month.

Allen countered by offering $2,500 a month. She said the clinic, which saw 4,250 patients last year, could not afford to pay more. She and Whitfield have not met since May, she said, and they have not exchanged emails since late November.

"All we know is what we hear him say publicly," she told the Tea Party on Tuesday.

During a meeting with the Walker County Tea Party on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018, Primary Healthcare Centers CEO Diana Allen said her staff plans to keep working at the Rossville, Ga., clinic until Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield kicks them out.

Said Sandy Matheson, Primary Healthcare Center's community liaison: "It's the people that need us. They won't have health care. They won't have the services that they need if we're not there."

Mike Cameron, the Walker County Republican Party's Rossville precinct chairman, doubts that the clinic's building is really worth $1.1 million. Though it's big, it's located in a low-income area. He said the appraisal compared the building to property in East Brainerd and downtown Chattanooga.

Whitfield previously told the Times Free Press that his price tag - $1.07 per square foot every month - is similar to what CHI Memorial Hospital pays Chickamauga and LaFayette to rent space for clinics there. If Primary Healthcare Centers does not pay, he believes he can find another nonprofit organization to operate there.

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.