Alicia Weldon

Staff Writer

When visiting Stabler Clinic, do not let the plastic partitions or the sound of hammering be a confusion. Stabler Clinic is just working to better serve the community.

Located at the corner of College and Oak streets, the clinic has been undergoing renovations since the end of March 2000. The almost $400,000 worth of changes include updating patient rooms and physician offices, remodeling the reception area and lobby with new carpets, computers and furniture and additions for more family practitioners and a nurse practitioner.

In the waiting room, there will also be a "well-baby, sick-baby room" to help keep children who have contagious diseases from spreading them to other children who do not.

The room will have a glass partition, allowing parents to go back and forth between the rooms if necessary. Toys and a carpet of a city complete with miniature cars will be available on both sides of the room.

Most of the renovations are scheduled to be completed around the end of the summer months.

Jerry Golden, Stabler Clinic's manager, said one of the reasons he took the job two weeks ago was because of the positive changes the clinic is undergoing.

"I want this clinic to be the best it possibly can be," Golden said. "I saw the changes that were taking place, and I wanted to take part in them."

Golden, who previously worked for Johnson & Johnson, traveling all over the state, said he enjoys working with everyone and meeting people in the community.

"I like being able to interact with the physicians, patients and the wonderful staff here who definitely know their jobs," Golden said. "Some of our staff has worked here for almost 30 years, and it's nice coming into a situation where the staff knows the patients, as well as their families because they've been here so long."

The clinic is located in part of the facility which was previously Stabler Infirmary, the only hospital in Butler County at the beginning of the 1900s.

Gladys Kelley, head bookkeeper at the clinic, said the changes have been in the planning stages for awhile, and she is proud of what has already been done so far.

"We enjoy having the extra room," Kelley, who has worked for Stabler Clinic for 27 years, said. "There hasn't been any remodeling here in years and we are very proud of what has been done, not just for ourselves, but for our patients, also. We want this clinic to be the best clinic it can possibly be."