The driving force behind the Rio Arriba County Health Commons project has resigned from his job at El Centro Family Health.
Dan Burke, who worked for El Centro for eight years, celebrated his farewell lunch with pasta salads and music Monday among his colleagues at El Centro’s Española administrative office. He worked on the concept of the Commons and secured funding for the project from the County, state and federal governments and private philanthropic organizations.
Blue Sky Builders, of Española, is expected to finish the first phase of the building — which includes finishing one wing of offices and building a shell around the rest of the facility — this fall, several months behind schedule. Once completed, plans call for the Health Commons to house El Centro, the County Health and Human Services Department, the state Health Department, social workers and federal nutrition and family offices.
The first phase is set to cost about $2.5 million, while the entire project’s projected cost of $5.5 million is uncertain, Burke said, because of rising construction costs.
“It’s a moving target,” he said.
Burke’s departure seems oddly timed, as he worked for years to see construction begin on the Commons, and work on phase one has hit several stumbling blocks. But Burke said he did what he set out to do, and he is confident El Centro will be able to finish the Commons without him even though it does not yet have the funding to complete the project. He said he is encouraged by potential future funding for the project and referred to it as his “biggest legacy.”
“People are committed to the bone,” he said.
El Centro Chief Executive Officer Lore Pease said she expects to receive $718,000 in federal funds next month for the project. Also, $2 million of nearly $58 million in anticipated statewide revenue from “Bond C,” which will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot, will go toward the Health Commons if the bond passes. Pease also said she will look to do private fund-raising, and she is contemplating the addition of a “donor wall” to the project to thank givers from the community.
Burke’s departure is not the only one the Northern New Mexico non-profit health care provider is experiencing.
El Centro lost several dentists at its clinic in Peñasco due to a digital X-ray system, Dentrix, and because they felt El Centro’s administration was not being responsive to their requests, Pease said. She said the digital system is nice because it doesn’t require chemicals to develop X-rays, but adjustments can be made in at least four different stages during the X-ray process, and as a result the quality of the X-rays varied. She said the system is currently being evaluated. As for conflicts with administration, Pease said it is an “internal situation” and would not comment further.
Burke was adamant that run-ins with the administration had nothing to do with his leaving.
“I completed what I set out to do,” he said. “I’m tired. I’m just tired.”
Burke said he does not have another job lined up, but he said he is looking for something less stressful in Santa Fe. He said it was hard to leave, as the staff at El Centro felt like a family after eight years.
“I will always love this organization,” he said. “I won’t be a stranger.”
Pease said El Centro will soon place an advertisement seeking a new planning and development director to pick up where Burke left off.