Bamberg County: Health, veterans offices open

State public health and veterans affairs officials and community members gathered at 50 Dickinson Extension in Bamberg for Friday’s grand opening.

The county is transforming its former hospital into a law enforcement and health and human services complex. The Ed Darnell Law Enforcement Center was dedicated in July.

“It stands as a testament to our community’s progress, collaboration and commitment to ensuring the well-being of our residents,” Bamberg County Administrator Joey Preston said.

“This new facility now boasts cutting-edge features, including dedicated areas for critical records storage and, of course, everything the law enforcement center has to offer, electronic access. The building is fortified with a 250-KW natural gas standby generator,” the administrator said.

The new offices occupy 6,350 square feet of space.

“This portion of the project was 100 percent funded from the capital projects sales tax program,” Preston said. He thanked county voters for approving the 1 percent sales tax a few years ago.

He said the county also received a $250,000 allocation from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control for the project.

Greg McFarland of Myrtle Beach-based architectural firm Pike-McFarland-Hall Associates Inc. said, “We’re grateful to be here today. It’s always exciting to see this next installment into restoring this building, extending its useful life for a lot of years to come.”

Taylor Lee is the public health director for DHEC’s Lowcountry Public Health Region, which includes Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties.

“We now have well over 5,000 square feet of beautiful space that includes three preventive health exam rooms, three WIC exam rooms, a pharmacy, two maternal and child health offices, a lab, a medical records room, waiting room and a conference room that’s also going to be dual serviced as a training room,” Lee said.

“All of these amenities and upgrades improve the quality of services we provide to Bamberg County and also help centralize other key services to residents, with us being co-located with the South Carolina Veterans Administration and also Bamberg County Sheriff’s Department. We’re also excited that future renovations of the facility will allow the Department of Social Services to be co-located across the hall from the health department,” he said.

Lee said the centralization of public health services in one location was “the goal we’re trying to achieve across South Carolina, and we’ve achieved that here.”

SCDHEC Director Dr. Edward Simmer said, “This is the third ribbon cutting that I’ve had the privilege to do this year for a new health department. That’s amazing, and that shows the commitment, I think, of our counties and our communities to the health of the people of South Carolina. …

“One of our primary agency goals in our strategic plan is partnering with local communities and local community groups and this is a great example of that.”

Simmer noted that DHEC will officially be split into the Department of Behavioral and Public Health and the Department of Environmental Services in July 2024.

“The Department of Public Health will have a little over 3,000 people, but that’s not nearly enough to do everything that needs to be done for the 5.7 million here in South Carolina, or even the people here in Bamberg County.

“So the only way that we can be successful is by partnering with groups like this county, like the city of Bamberg, like many local community groups,” Simmer said.

Dennis Thompson, region senior consultant with the Lowcountry Public Health Region, said, “I’m so proud that I’ve been able to work as part of this project, and it is really a beautiful place to work.”

Todd B. McCaffrey, the state secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, also spoke on the project’s impact.

“There are nearly 400,000 veterans across the state of South Carolina, but I will tell you the veteran needs in more rural counties are especially acute. They have unique requirements because of geography, because of location, a whole number of things,” McCaffrey said.

“This facility, the fact that it couples veterans’ services with health services to eventually DSS and those kinds of things, really is a remarkable and innovative way of supporting veterans’ needs. So I’m really pleased to see that. It’s both innovative, it’s effective and it’s efficient, as well. So it will serve veterans for years to come,” he said.

Craig Walker, a veteran and director of the county Veterans Affairs Office, also spoke of the project’s significance.

“I am truly grateful for the handicapped accessibility offered and ample parking our veterans can now use. The additional office space will provide our veterans with a waiting area, more privacy, and the fact that we have a lobby means that they don’t have to wait outside in the rain anymore,” Walker said.

The county also presented the office with a new car to help transport county’s veterans.

Preston said the next phase of the hospital’s redevelopment will include space for the county’s morgue and emergency operations center, coroner and EMS offices.

Bamberg Mayor Nancy Foster said the facility has been beautifully repurposed and will serve the county well.

“The enhancements have just made it a stunning architectural asset for Bamberg. This is yet another beautiful area in town that gives me pride,” she said.