CARBONDALE, Ill. (KFVS) – Part of an old building was demolished on Tuesday, November 28 ahead of the building of a new health care resource in southern Illinois.

Shawnee Health officials gathered Tuesday afternoon to prepare for the new community health center.

We’re told the organization bought an old building directly south of their Carbondale location, in the 500 block of South Lewis Lane.

Part of that building was demolished in the process of turning it into a health facility.

Shawnee Health was allocated congressionally-directed spending to help expand their services.

Christina Carney, CEO of Shawnee Health, said they have waited a couple of years to get to this point, and it’s the first step in a much larger project.

“We’re so excited to be able to bring resources to the neighborhood, to the community,” she added. “We are going to be partnering with locations and organizations across the community to provide resources and access to community and social services for individuals in the neighborhood and the residents of Carbondale.”

She said their vision is to add resources without duplicating services already offered in the community. In that sense, they’ll be partnering with other organizations.

They hope to start with social services and then expand to medical services in the future.

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