PITTSBURG — The Crawford County Health Department is scheduled to formally unveil its new offices Wednesday.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Robert Moser is expected to attend the opening ceremony, which begins at 10 a.m. at 410 E. Atkinson.

“We’ve gone from 6,000 square feet to 11,000 square feet,” said Crawford County Health Officer Janis Goedeke.

The new offices actually opened in January.

“We’ve were very tight on space,” Goedeke said. “We had two people in every office and you had to turn sideways to get into some of the offices. It wasn’t very patient friendly, but it is now.”

The $650,000 office expansion was funded by Crawford County and a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant.

Prior to January, health department operations were in three buildings. Now, Goedeke said, they’re consolidated into one.

“We’ve added 13 offices,” she said, “and a tornado shelter room, which we didn’t have before.”

The health department has 25 employees, including two nurse practitioners and nine nurses. It also houses a women’s health and cancer detection clinic, an immunization program, several programs for pregnant women and young children and a regional HIV case management program.

“They have been a great partner with KDHE in many of our program activities, and we look forward to continuing to strengthen and improve this relationship going forward,” Moser said in a prepared statement for KHI News Service.