A small medical clinic will be renovated and upgraded in Escalante.
A $15,000 grant from the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Community Assistance Program will pay most of the costs. This will be supplemented with a $5,000 donation by the Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguitch and $5,000 from Escalante city coffers.The project will provide an emergency room for minor surgery and patient stabilization prior to life flights as well as a 15-by-2O-foot addition. The project is expected to be completed in January and emergency room equipment installed by March 1, 1996.
The federal grant will also provide enough money to sponsor cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first-responder classes at the Escalante High School and $1,600 of $3,978 to be spent to train new emergency medical technicians.
Escalante does not have a doctor and the clinic is sponsored through the hospital at Panguitch, an Intermountain Health Care facility.
An economic impact by decisions that affect public lands was the criteria that determined eligibility for the grant from the Department of Agriculture.