SOUTH FORK — The new Rio Grande Hospital Clinic building in South Fork will be breaking ground in the coming weeks. The new clinic will replace a much older clinic.

The new building will be a state-of-the-art facility that will benefit the South Fork community.

Earlier this summer, Rio Grande Hospital officials announced plans to bring a new clinic to South Fork, and now that all the paperwork has been filed and accepted, the dream is beginning to become a reality.

Hospital CEO Arlene Harms released preliminary plans for the clinic in August along with plans to create a new wellness center in the coming year. 

“We are building a new clinic in South Fork, and we are really excited," Harms said. "South Fork has been a committed area for us and their patients and even though it dwindled down to very few for a short time, we kept our clinic there open and running. We have been trying to fix it and trying to keep it running as best we can, patch the holes, keep the roof from leaking and it is just time for us to get a new building there.”

The SF clinic will be built in a new location. It will be in a vacant lot near the Old Firehouse Restaurant, just east of town.

“At the same time, we decided to build a new clinic, we will be welcoming back a full-time doctor that is committed to the area," Harms said. "We will have a great presence there along Highway 160 and we are just very excited about the project.”

During the Rio Grande County Commissioner meeting held earlier in September, the building department announced that they had issued permits for the construction of the new clinic and that plans were well underway to break ground as early as next month.

The hospital hopes to have the clinic finished by the end of the year if weather and material availability cooperates. More details will be reported as they come available.