MONTAGUE — Local and state officials gathered alongside health care workers on Monday afternoon to celebrate the return of a community health center to town.

The first community health center in western Massachusetts was founded in 1997 in Turners Falls at the former Farren Care Center site just up the road from 8 Burnham St., where the new offices of the Community Health Center of Franklin County are now located. The organization had been looking for its next opportunity for growth, having maximized use of its locations at 102 Main St. in Greenfield and 119 New Athol Road in Orange, CEO Dr. Allison van der Velden said previously.

The center bought the Burnham Street property, previously owned by Baystate Franklin Medical Center, for $825,000 in the summer of 2023. Before Baystate Franklin acquired it in January 2020, it was home to Connecticut River Internists. This new Community Health Center of Franklin County location was funded using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money, along with grants for health centers across the United States.

Van der Velden said before Monday’s ceremony that she is excited to see the return of a community health center to the town where it began in western Massachusetts, especially because of the increased demand for the care that the facility can provide.

“[This comes] at a time when there’s a huge demand for health care, and we have this beautiful space, so I’m really proud of that,” van der Velden said. “We’re really here for everybody.”

The Community Health Center of Franklin County’s services include primary and medical care, behavioral services, gender-affirming care, pediatric care, reproductive care and addiction services. The center hopes to offer dental care in the future. To start, there will be three full-time providers and one part-time provider, with one fluent in Spanish to offer expanded care to local Spanish-speaking populations.

Van der Velden offered opening remarks about the new center, reiterating the commitment it has to people in the community.

“We remain committed to our rural community and our mission to champion community health by delivering accessible, integrated health care, collaborating with patients in the community to improve length and quality of life, and emphasizing health care as a fundamental right for all,” van der Velden said.

A unique element of the Community Health Center of Franklin County is the service it offers to the region’s rural communities. State Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, spoke to this during her remarks, stating that the ability to offer expanded health care is difficult in today’s climate, but to offer community health care in a rural context is an “against-all-odds” scenario. State Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, spoke after Comerford, saying that “community health centers are really the cornerstones of our communities.”

Koby Gardner-Levine, regional manager for the office of U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, spoke on McGovern’s behalf as he was unable to attend. He reiterated McGovern’s commitment to supporting these health care centers.

“He will continue to advocate for funding for health care, and for community health centers in particular,” Gardner-Levine said. “We will continue to fight for health care for all and to create a better, more just health care system.”

Among the attendees at Monday’s grand opening was Dr. Michael Curry, president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. Curry explained the idea of a community health center that began in the context of social justice in the 1960s, and how the significance of the Community Health Center of Franklin County is the service it provides to rural communities that have lost their hospitals and are struggling to recruit health care professionals.

“These are the challenges that the Community Health Center of Franklin County has been working to address for the last 27 years. The health center provides critical services to the underserved community here in Turners Falls, as well as in Greenfield and Orange,” Curry said.

The Community Health Center of Franklin County is considered a federally qualified health care center — a primary medical care center that receives federal funding and has a nonprofit structure to serve communities facing barriers to health care. According to the United States Health Resources and Services Administration, a FQHC can “provide equitable health care to people who are geographically isolated and economically or medically vulnerable. This includes programs that deliver health services to people with HIV, pregnant people, mothers and their families, those with low incomes, residents of rural areas, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and those otherwise unable to access high-quality health care.”

“This new expansion will allow you to treat an additional 4,000 patients,” Curry said. “The 50% increase in capacity is crucial to addressing the continually growing needs of low-income, underserved patients in Franklin County.”

Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) Director of Community Health Phoebe Walker spoke about this new location’s importance when it comes to meeting the goals of FRCOG’s five-year Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP), which points to the expansion of health care as a priority. Walker said this expansion of service will not only provide care to people living in the five villages of Montague, but will offer expanded space for health care as demand for service increases between the two existing Community Health Center of Franklin County locations.

“This allows for there to be enough space for people to have beautiful behavioral health offices and room for all of the possible needs of the patients,” Walker said. “I think it’s important not to think of it as just an expansion for Montague-area people, although this really does bring it easily within touch of Leverett or Wendell people, so there are a lot of folks who [will benefit from health care being] that much closer, but it’s also just an expansion overall of the footprint.”

Patient enrollment for the Turners Falls location is now available and plans to provide more services at the location are in progress. For more information about the Community Health Center of Franklin County, visit chcfc.org.

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.