VAN NUYS : Demolition of Public Health Center Begins

More than eight months after it was condemned because of earthquake damage, work crews on Friday began demolishing the five-story building that once housed the San Fernando Valley’s largest public health center.

The destruction--a 7 a.m. wake-up call by a wrecking ball--marked the next stage in restoring the Mid-Valley Comprehensive Health Center in Van Nuys to its stature before the Jan. 17 temblor.

The 34-year-old building in the 7500 block of Van Nuys Boulevard has been condemned since March, when inspectors found cracks in support beams on the top floor.

“We are going to rebuild on the current site,” said Ernest Espinoza, associate administrator with the county’s Department of Health Services. “It could take five or six years.”

Demolition of the condemned facility was started during the Thanksgiving weekend because of lighter street traffic in the area. Although the building is expected to be razed by Monday, Espinoza said debris removal could take up to 45 days.

A new facility at the site, which has not yet been designed, would be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state money and insurance benefits. There is no cost estimate.

Since the building was condemned, the center’s staff has been treating patients in 13 trailers in the parking lot. About 4,300 patients visit the makeshift clinic each month--a 40% decrease since before the quake.

To ease the burden on clients, some of whom have been forced to seek medical care elsewhere, county supervisors agreed last month to create an interim medical center in a three-story building at 6931 Van Nuys Blvd.

Rented at about $36,000 a month, the interim building will be remodeled and ready for the medical staff of 80 people by the middle of next year, Espinoza said.

Ironically, Espinoza said, the earthquake-ravaged building now being demolished once served as an interim health clinic itself. It filled in for the Olive View Medical Center that was destroyed by the 1972 Sylmar earthquake.