Construction on Wellness Center to begin in spring

Construction will begin on the Alleghany Wellness Center facility on Collins Road on or before April 1 and should conclude next year. Alleghany Wellness Center Inc. Vice Chair and Project Coordinator Carolyn Sprinkle said the group's goal is to have the center operational prior to 2004. "That's our goal, but there are a lot of things that could happen between now and then," said Sprinkle. She noted that the opening could happen as late as early 2004 if there are significant weather delays or construction problems. "If everything goes like we hope, we could have the center open by this time next year," she added.

Although plans are for the project to move forward, the group still needs to raise about another $200,000 to finish paying for the work. The estimated project cost is slated as $2.3 million for the center, which has been pared down slightly to keep it in budget.

"We have been approved to make application for a USDA loan. If we need to do that, we can," Sprinkle said. "But we still feel like we are going to be able to reach our goal."

Part of the reason for the optimism could come from several key pieces of the financial puzzle falling into place in recent weeks.

In June of this year, Alleghany Wellness was awarded a grant from Kate B. Reynolds contingent on raising all of the money necessary to complete the project.

"We did not feel like we could raise much more than the $1.5 million that we had on hand," said Sprinkle, especially considering the current status of the local economy. "We went back to Kate B. Reynolds and asked, ‘If we reduce this to $2.3 million, would you work with us on that?'

"We reworked our grant application by Nov. 18 and presented it to the board by Nov. 25. We didn't know if we would get anything.

"Then last week I went to the post office and got a letter from Kate B. Reynolds and I was afraid to open it," said Sprinkle with a smile. "It said our amended application was approved. That put us at $1.8 million." "We also have a challenge grant from the Reeves Foundation," she said. "If we raise $200,000 from Nov. 1 through June 1, 2003 and start the project April 1, they will give us $100,000.

"And then the day before yesterday we got a call from the Triangle Community Foundation and they told us that we had been gifted $225,000. So that means we will be able to get the $100,000 from the Reeves Foundation.

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