By Stephen Smoot
At last week’s meeting of the Pendleton County Commission, Mike Crites spoke on behalf of the Hardy County Committee on Aging. He opened with “A few months ago, I was telling you of our plan to establish a dialysis center.”
The previous administration of the Committee on Aging had made an offer of a year’s free rent, about $63,000, to entice a dialysis center to locate in Moorefield. This would replace a previous facility that relocated to Keyser. While that did place it in the city with the second largest population in the Eastern Panhandle, besides Martinsburg, it created a hardship for those who saw Moorefield as convenient.
Fresenius Medical Care, the “world’s leading provider of products and services for people with chronic kidney failure,” agreed to locate a dialysis center in the same location as the previous facility. Hardy County officials now steering the effort met with the County Commissions of Hardy, Grant, and Pendleton counties, as well as municipal governments, to request support to help cover the free year of rent.
Crites informed the Commission in this meeting that Fresenius had signed a 10-year contract to operate the center in Moorefield.
That did not end the work needed to prepare. In fact, some of the most difficult work lay after. Crites discussed with the Commission a number of issues, one of the most frustrating lying in a non operative elevator.
Two small plastic parts with a total cost of $81 will require about $2,000 worth of labor to install. Additionally, Fresenius uses a different facility design than the previous company, so additional work will help to bring the space in line with their needs.
Fresenius expects to open the facility by the opening of 2026, but has already experienced the positive reactions of the community. “People are stopping them at the gas station” to ask about when the center will open.
Crites shared the story of one man who wakes up at 3 a.m. to take his wife for treatments in Keyser, then has to return to Moorefield and start a full day of work running a business.
Carl Hevener, Pendleton County Commission President and member of the Potomac Valley Transit Authority Board, shared of the transportation issue that “it’ll be looked at… dialysis patients that need transportation.” He stated that PVTA takes a number of patients lengthy distances for medical services.
According to Crites, “they are hiring” and “they try to hire locally. That’s my understanding.”
The request made by Crites of the Commission was for any amount that could help defer part of $83,000 in costs to offset. “We ask for your consideration,” he said.
