Hildale clinic closes doors after 15 years
 
By Jane Zhang
jzhang@thespectrum.com
 
HILDALE -- The baby in the blanket became quiet, and the young woman in her long dress started talking quietly on her cell phone.

But as the chatter became boisterous among four other children she brought to the clinic's classroom, she stood up and walked to the door. Her voice became even more remote, while the children continued to jumped from one blue plastic chair to another.

It was another rainy day in Hildale, and the woman, who declined to talked to a reporter, was one of the last clients to leave the Southwest Utah Public Health Department WIC Clinic, which closed Friday at noon after 15 years.

Funded by the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, the clinic offered grocery vouchers, dietary supplements and nutrition education to low-income women who are pregnant or breast feeding, and children younger than 5.

Caught between a population boom and an economic downturn, however, the Southwest Public Health Department decided to cut the Hildale clinic to avoid laying off staff, said Gary Edwards, the department's director.

Counting utilities and rental costs of the 1,100-square-foot trailer office, the closure of the clinic will save the department at least $14,000 a year. With clinics in Panguitch, Cedar City, Kanab, St. George, LaVerkin and Beaver, Edwards said, the WIC program's budget this year is $750,000, a large sum among the department's entire budget of $3.9 million.

In January, the Hildale clinic received 1,021 residents from Hildale and Colorado City, Ariz., a 30 percent increase from the average client load in 1998, said Pat Thomas, the department's nursing director. In comparison, the St. George clinic served 2,223 clients in January, an 8 percent increase from five years ago.

After the closure of the Hildale WIC office, said Bette Crosby, WIC supervisor for Washington County, the clinic's 600 Hildale clients now have to go to St. George or LaVerkin to receive services. About 500 of them have already signed up to switch services, she said.

The Hildale office, which was open three days a week, had two local staff members. In addition, four registered nurses and a dietitian from other WIC clinics in the county also came to Hildale, weighing clients, teaching nutrition classes, inspecting diet history and issuing food vouchers. The staff members will move to LaVerkin.

The Colorado City clients -- about 400 in total -- will have to register with the Arizona WIC office in Colorado City, which, with limited resources, has set up a waiting list, Crosby said. Under an inter-state agreement, the Arizona office also has Utah clients, though in small numbers. Those clients, she said, may switch to Utah WIC offices, too.

Signing up for the service is one thing, said Hildale Mayor David Zitting, but will mother and baby travel 25 miles each way to LaVerkin against the often stormy and dangerous weather in the winter? There, he said, they won't have a comfortable environment of their own.

"People in this community, (their) culture is a little bit different than others'," Zitting said. "I don't think there will be a lot to go down to LaVerkin."

Most of Hildale's 2,000 residents belong to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which still teaches polygamy as a central doctrine. Through a trust, the United Effort Plan, the church controls most of the land and property in the border towns of Hildale and Colorado City.

On Jan. 10, Warren Jeffs, the reclusive prophet of the FLDS church, expelled 21 men, including Joseph Barlow Sr., Hildale's councilman of 41 years, and Dan Barlow, Colorado City's mayor of 19 years. Both soon resigned.

The decision to close the Hildale clinic had nothing to do with the turmoil inside the FLDS church, Edwards said. He said Zitting was informed of the decision on Jan. 9.

Before moving to the new trailer office about eight months ago, the WIC program rented a downstairs office in the Hildale City building. The health department paid about $400 per month for rent, which also included utilities costs, Zitting said. At the new office, however, the department paid rent plus costs for utilities, such as telephone and lighting.

As budget overrun was the department's only concern, Zitting said he proposed to cut operating costs to avoid the clinic's closure.

"It will amount to a lot of people not receiving a service," he said. "It's very unfortunate, but I don't know what more we can do about it."

But between cutting staff and closing clinics, Edwards said, he had no other choice. Without staff members, a clinic won't be able to serve clients.

The Hildale WIC clinic is not the only one the health department has cut. As part of an ongoing financial struggle in the last two years, Edwards said, it also closed WIC clinics in Escalante and Milford, each has about 150 clients. In addition, WIC staff no longer travels to the Iron County Building in Parowan to provide services.

"Anytime you close something that has been in a community for a while, you have community feelings, you have staff feelings," Edwards said. "It's our hope that they will go to LaVerkin."

Starting Monday, Mary Stewart, a registered nurse from Colorado City who celebrated her 15-year anniversary working at the Hildale WIC office earlier this month, will work from the LaVerkin office.

"I'm very sad," said Stewart, standing next to packed boxes in the clinic Friday. "But you know, we had to do what we had to do to be open at all."
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published February 28, 2004
 
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