Falls City Resource Center reports rising use, explores pilot medical services

Brent DeMoe, director of Polk County’s Family and Community Outreach Department, told the Polk County Board of Commissioners on June 4 that the Falls City Resource Center has expanded rapidly since opening in October 2024 and is being considered as a potential pilot model for rural service delivery.

The update described what staff called a ‘‘one-stop’’ site that shares lobby space with multiple providers, hosts community events, and is testing adding medical services. Commissioners were told the site saw 301 client visits in May 2025, up from five visits in September 2024.

DeMoe said the center includes two family meeting rooms, a community classroom, two medical exam rooms built for future clinical use, and regular on-site programs from Polk County Behavioral Health. He said Polk County staff are on site five days a week, a homeless-prevention worker attends one day a week, and partner organizations provide recurring services: the Oregon Department of Human Services self-sufficiency program one day weekly; a diaper-distribution ‘‘diaper bus’’ monthly; WIC from public health; Salem Health screenings; a dental van every other month; and full dental services by Medical Teams International on occasion. DeMoe said Amity High School students have constructed planter boxes and sheds for the site and that produce from the garden will be given to the community.

Amy Hotaling, a Falls City councilor, said community skepticism at the project’s start has largely dissipated. “When this pilot was first proposed at council meetings, it was the people that didn’t need services who said, ‘It’s going to become a homeless camp,’ and people who needed services said they wouldn’t trust it,” Hotaling said. “Now those naysayers are coming to the resource center for services.”

AJ Foscoli, Falls City city manager, announced the center won an award for excellence in the small-city category from a statewide organization that solicited nominees for spring conference awards. Foscoli said the recognition highlights the collaborative nature of the project and its potential as a replicable model for very rural areas.

DeMoe described a possible next step: a proposal to the health council from WVP Health Authority for 18 months of pilot funding to staff the site with a nurse practitioner on Fridays and use telehealth equipment other days. He said the plan is exploratory and “not a done deal,” adding that WVP can bill OHP (Oregon Health Plan), commercial insurance and private payers without displacing patients’ existing primary-care home assignments. DeMoe said the proposal is intended to test feasibility given the small local population and billing challenges.

Commissioners and presenters emphasized the site’s partnerships and philanthropic support, including funding from the Roundhouse Foundation and in-kind work by White Oak Construction. DeMoe and Foscoli said the Falls City lot for the resource center was donated by the city and that the fenced area has enabled activities such as a veterans barbecue, a children’s snack program that serves about 80 kids after school, and a mental-health awareness event called the “Happy Dance.”

No formal action or vote on the center or on the proposed medical pilot was recorded in the meeting transcript; presenters said the pilot proposal is being prepared and would return for review by funding bodies if approved.

The resource center presentation concluded with an acknowledgment from commissioners that transportation, access to groceries and other infrastructure gaps remain significant local challenges despite the resource center’s progress.