Generosity and collaboration create a new clinic in St. Regis

Mineral County Hospital Clinic Manager Holly Blaylock worked for Jack Lincoln as a manager of Durango’s at the beginning of her career. What she remembers is a man who was always giving, a man who would never let travelers be turned away hungry.

Jack’s son Grant has continued his father’s legacy of giving and due in part to his donation a new clinic in St. Regis was built. At the ribbon cutting ceremony on Feb. 27, Mineral County Hospital Chief Executive Officer Steve Carty officially announced the name of the new clinic – the Jack Lincoln Memorial Clinic.     

“I know my dad would be extremely proud, extremely humbled and possibly quite embarrassed by this,” Grant Lincoln said prior to cutting the red ribbon. “At the end of the day it’s a tremendous honor.”    

Residents of Mineral County packed the clinic for the ribbon cutting ceremony, which also included a tour of the facilities as well as free Hemoglobin A1C tests, which determines blood sugar and can be used to identify diabetes in a patient. 

“I’m delighted,” St. Regis resident Mike Jacquot said. “It will bring people to the St. Regis area.” 

For Carty, the opening of the clinic was the realization of a desire to bring a permanent clinic to the town since he moved there three years ago. 

“I thought in my mind ‘why don’t we have a clinic in St. Regis?’ in my own hometown,” Carty said. 

After the success of bringing a mobile clinic to the town as well as utilizing a rental space to have a clinic a couple days a week, Carty and his colleagues thought it was time for something more permanent. 

“We weren’t sure how we were going to pay for it but with some generous donations from the Human Resource Council and the Resort Board we were able to get it pretty much paid for,” Carty said. “Obviously with Grant Lincoln’s donation of $100,000 and the land and everything – we had a lot of great support.” 

Carty added that it was “vital” that tax funds not be used in the building of the clinic and the hope is to do the same thing with a new hospital facility in Superior. He also said that the clinic in St. Regis was built in order to accommodate future expansion, including a possible dental clinic. 

“It’s an amazing collaboration of people willing to see new vision,” Muffy Bollock, MCH board member said. “It’s the start of a new era for our hospital. Just because there wasn’t a clinic in St. Regis doesn’t mean it wasn’t needed – there is room for growth here” 

When Mineral County Commissioner Duane Simons campaigned for office in 2008 he asked Carty what he could do for the hospital. The response was that Simons could build him a new hospital. Simons said at first he laughed at the notion but due to the work of Carty and many others not only did the clinic become a reality but a new hospital is in the works as well. 

“This is a great day for St. Regis,” Simons said. “It’s been a long time coming. Everybody has been behind this and I think we have a great future here ahead of us.”  

Construction of the clinic was done by Reed Mountain Construction, who won the bid to build the hospital and utilized as many local contractors as they could in the building. 

“It’s been a real honor for us to be a part of this,” Pam Reed, of Reed Mountain Construction said. “We look forward to watching the building flourish and do a lot of good things for the people of Mineral County.”  

As the ceremony drew to a close George Bailey, of MCH, discussed how thankful he was to see the clinic opened.

“Thanks to Grant and his generosity in the name of his dad and family this building is 100% paid for,” Bailey said. “It’s given to the community and knowing that, Jack would be very proud.”