Sinking golden shovels into the dirt of a vacant Depot Street lot, representatives from the public and private sectors ceremonially began construction on a new MaineHealth medical arts facility in Waldoboro Monday, Jan. 6.
“I’m very happy and glad that this is happening to our town,” said Waldoboro Select Board Chair John Blodgett at a reception after the groundbreaking ceremony. “It’s going to do great things.”
The facility, planned for 130 Depot St., will centralize the primary care practices currently operational in Waldoboro, replacing the existing Mill Street and West Maine Street offices, said MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital President Cindy Wade. The site is also tentatively expected to house a future Waldoboro community center through an agreement between the town and MaineHealth, which owns the land.
According to Wade, the new facility will modernize Waldoboro’s existing medical infrastructure, improve conditions for patients and providers alike, and, eventually, shorten wait times for some services. The town’s current practices, located in renovated homes, are cramped and not universally accessible, she said.
Through the inclusion of the planned community center, the site would also open up future opportunities for increased community outreach, education, and collaboration, according to Wade.
“It’s so nice to finally be here, and exciting for this area, this community, who are very much deserving of a beautiful new facility,” she said.
Waldoboro Town Manager Julie Keizer said the groundbreaking represented a triumph of collaboration that had been in the works since 2018.
“For us, it’s a partnership,” Keizer said. “For the community center, for MaineHealth and us to be partners, it just speaks to what you can do if you work together. If I look back when I retire, this will be one of the big moments.”
The site plan for the medical arts facility, as presented by representatives of engineering firm Sebago Technics Inc. at a Waldoboro Planning Board meeting in September 2024, includes a parcel of land intended for future use by the town for construction of the community center.
It also includes extra parking spaces to accommodate theoretical community center traffic. The land is located along the Medomak River, and the site plan also includes a stretch of land labeled “future public access,” signaling an additional potential use of the site for outdoor recreation.
Keizer said the inclusion of a community center at the site was an idea originally raised at a forum around 2018. It made sense, she said, to share not only physical infrastructure like parking lots, electricity, and water but also spaces devoted to similar goals of increasing the health and happiness of residents.
“That’s what made (the project) so great,” Keizer said.
Toward this goal, the joint project was awarded $1 million in congressionally directed spending designated by the office of U.S. Sen. Angus King for site preparation work that will benefit both planned facilities.
“This (medical arts facility) is the first phase, and we’re hoping that the second phase is a community center where the people of Waldoboro can gather and we can do great things,” Keizer said.
However, it’s not yet guaranteed the community center will come to fruition. That depends on whether there is still appetite for it among residents, according to town officials.
“We still have to gauge the public’s interest, and a lot of that is dependent on what people are willing to fund,” said Keizer. “We really need to figure out what people want and what they’re willing to pay for.”
In the meantime, construction on the medical office portion of the site will begin this winter. The project was funded in large part through a capital campaign run by MaineHealth two years ago, Wade said. However, cost increases since then created a $500,000 gap in funding that still needed to be closed.
To raise those funds, the hospital network is looking to philanthropists, Wade said. First National Bank, headquartered in Damariscotta, donated $150,000 to kick start the second phase of the capital campaign. To honor this contribution, representatives from the bank participated in the Jan. 6 groundbreaking.
Keizer thanked MaineHealth, legislators, and Waldoboro Town Planner Maxwell Johnstone for helping pull the project together.
“This is a very proud day in Waldoboro,” she said. “This is a wonderful investment in our community. It’s a wonderful partnership.”
