Speech and Testimony
County Executive Leggett's Remarks at the Dennis Avenue Health Center Ribbon Cutting
As prepared
Good morning.
It is great to be here to celebrate the opening of the new Dennis Avenue Health Center.
It was just two years ago on a rainy, dreary day in May that we broke ground for this beautiful building.
I know residents visiting the Center for services and staff working here are pleased with the new space.
Most people driving by this Center don’t know how critical the programs here—such as communicable disease & epidemiology and tuberculosis control— are to the health and well-being of the community.
When the original Dennis Avenue Health Center opened in the early 1980’s, no one had heard of HIV or Anthrax or bioterrorism.
Since then, the staff at this Center have been at the forefront of many of the things we read about on the front page of the newspaper and see on TV.
In 2001, shortly after the nation’s Anthrax attacks, staff here offered screening for Anthrax exposure because worried residents were swamping our community’s emergency rooms.
During the H1N1 flu outbreak several years ago and in years when flu vaccine was in short supply—staff here at Dennis Avenue vaccinated hundreds of residents.
Now, of course, they are grappling with the Zika virus.
We don’t know what the next health crisis will be that the staff here will have to confront.
What I do know is that the services offered here will continue to be critical to the health and safety of our community.
I know that the staff will respond with the professionalism and skill in the future as they have in the past with the added advantages of this wonderful new building with new equipment and resources.
Thank you.
Release ID: 16-011
Wednesday, April 27, 2016; 10:30 a.m.