Cornerstone Care celebrates opening of new facility
MT. MORRIS — Cornerstone Care recently held an open house to commemorate the official opening of the new Primary Care Center of Mt. Morris, a facility that many people said at the open house defines the essence of community spirit.
Located directly off the Mt. Morris exit of Interstate 79, the two-story, 12,000 square-foot, $1.4 million facility officially open its doors on Dec. 2 with an open house celebration that included guided tours of the new center and its many offices, as well as a special ribbon-cutting and dedication ceremony.
Numerous local and state dignitaries joined Cornerstone Care board members and personnel, representatives from various local agencies and businesses, and the public to celebrate the center’s grand opening.
The dedication ceremony featured remarks from various officials and politicians, including Robert MtJoy, chief executive officer for Cornerstone Care, and Mona Counts, a nurse practitioner and founder of the Mt. Morris care center. Counts started providing health care services 20 years ago in a Mt. Morris facility not originally designed for the purpose of health care delivery. The non-profit Cornerstone Care partnered with the old facility to create the new center.
“The new center is the culmination of Mona’s dream,” MtJoy said. “This is something the community has been raising funds for for years, and everyone is very excited by the opening. We finally have a state-of-the-art facility, one the community can be proud of.”
Joining Counts and several nurse practitioners at the non-profit health care center is Dr. Bill Minor, a long-time resident of Greene County; and Dr. Greg Montgomery, who provides dental services.
The new facility actually opened on Aug. 15, fully capable of providing medical services. However, the building is also designed to provide dental services, but the dental equipment they ordered did not arrive until the week of Nov. 28.
“We didn’t want to schedule a ribbon cutting ceremony until the dental practice was fully equipped and up and running,” MtJoy explained. Dr. Greg Montgomery saw his first patient in the new building on Nov. 28 so the open house was held later in the week, MtJoy said.
In August, people from Whiteley, Dunkard, and Perry townships and area businesses helped with the move into the new center. American Gas and Oil and the townships provided trucks, and area businesses provided pizza, water, soft drinks and other refreshments.
John Bernard, chairman of Cornerstone Care’s board of directors, said during the dedication ceremony that the initiative to move into the new center was “a true community effort.”
MtJoy agreed, adding that the new and spacious facility will “serve the community well.”
“It’s been heartwarming to see how the community has come together to make the new facility in Mt. Morris happen,” MtJoy said.
Board member Bill Bennett commended several people who helped make the new facility a reality, including MtJoy and Counts.
“They worked their tails off and have been a real blessing,” he said. “This center is the end result of a of hard work from a lot of very good people.”
Sen. Tim Solobay and Greene County commissioner Pam Snyder also commended Counts, Cornerstone Care and the Mt. Morris community for working together in the initiative. Other officials attending the event included retired state Rep. Barry Stout and representatives from state Rep. Bill DeWeese’s office.
The dedication concluded with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a reception.
The center — which is located at 120 Locust Avenue Extension in Mt. Morris — provides a range of services, including primary care, on-site laboratory services, the dispensing of sample medications, even individual and family counseling by licensed therapists.
The center accepts Medicare, Medicaid and people that have no health insurance. The latter can receive care on a sliding fee basis, depending on family size and income. Additionally, the center can also help uninsured patients with a substantially reduced cost of their prescriptions.
“As a community health center, our mission is to increase access to health care, especially in under-served areas, including rural areas,” MtJoy said. “Patients can come in from anywhere, and, because we’re so close to Interstate 79, we anticipate more acute visits from patients who need to be seen that day.”
Currently, Cornerstone Care maintains a total of ten centers in the Southwestern Pennsylvania counties of Greene, Fayette and Washington, which includes a mobile medical and dental van. The organization has been around for almost 35 years and maintains its main office in Greensboro, the site of its original health center.
(News reporter Dave Zuchowski contributed to this article.)