Augusta Civic Center juggling MaineGeneral vaccine clinic, Legislature
Photo / Maureen Milliken
The Augusta Civic Center, which is being used as a mass vaccine site for MaineGeneral health care system, is also being used by the Maine Legislature when it meets as a full body.
The Augusta Civic Center for the past year has taken a hit from COVID-19 restrictions, but now the pandemic is giving back a little.
The city-owned Civic Center, which normally hosts high school basketball tournaments and large conferences this time of year, today is the site of both a Maine Legislature session and Augusta-based MaineGeneral Medical Center's mass vaccine clinic.
The presence of both, which have separately operated at the site before today, is a financial boost for the venue, which has lost more than $250,000 since the pandemic began.
The 49,000-square-foot building, which has a 6,000-seat auditorium, two ballrooms and 23 flexible-capacity conference rooms, is the only space of its size in central Maine. Usually that means it's in demand for large conferences, the high school basketball tournaments, high school and college graduations, and more. This spring, it means it's the only spot in the area that can accommodate the Legislature when the House or Senate meets as a full body, and is also the only place that has space for the vaccine clinic.
Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and Chuck Hays, president and CEO of MaineGeneral Health, said in a joint news release Monday they are confident that the building can accommodate both the clinics and the Legislature at the same time.
The venue finished the 2018-19 fiscal year $250,000 in the black, but has been limping along for the past year with small corporate gatherings, with maximum capacity limited by COVID-19 health rules. It finished the first quarter of the fiscal year $98,617 in the red and was projected to finish the second quarter another $160,000 down. It costs $206,000 a month to run the 48-year-old building.
The 186-member Legislature is occasionally meeting as a body in the building to allow social distancing not possible at the State House, where some smaller committee meetings are taking place. MaineGeneral, for several weeks, has hosted mass vaccine clinics there, which recently ramped up to six days a week.
As of Friday, MaineGeneral Medical Center had provided more than 16,300 vaccinations overall, 14,700 of which happened at the Civic Center. MaineGeneral is now operating 72 hours a week at the site — 12 hours a day, six days a week, said spokeswoman Joy McKenna.
The cost of the clinic is more than $100,000 a month, which includes the rental space, staffing and supplies, she said.
There was no immediate information on how much the state is paying for legislative use, or how many days it will use the Civic Center. So far, it has used it for three days in December, two earlier this month, and today.
In December it was reported the overall cost to the state for the three-day legislative session was $145,000, which included some one-time expenses as well as ongoing ones, and rent of $4,025 a day. The Civic Center netted $21,000 for the three days, Director Earl Kingsbury told Mainebiz at the time.
Clinic, legislative day at same time
A legislative session day is being held today at the site, while MaineGeneral continues its COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Separate indoor spaces and entrances, as well as different areas of the Civic Center's expansive parking lot, are keeping the legislative business and vaccination clinic separate, the release said.
Earlier this month, the Legislature rushed to get a budget vote completed, a session that went past midnight, because it had to vacate the Civic Center for the vaccine clinic the following day.
Jackson said he was "immediately on board" when Hays called him in January about MaineGeneral using the Civic Center for a COVID-19 vaccination clinic. Jackson and Hays said they worked with the Civic Center leadership team "to ensure both events could happen simultaneously in a safe and effective manner."
“This is another in a series of partnerships during the pandemic that put the best interests of our community first," Hays said. "I appreciate the collaboration we’ve developed that will help legislators do their work on behalf of the people of Maine and also help MaineGeneral continue to vaccinate area residents.”
Jackson said that vaccinations are key to reopening the economy. "I simply was not willing to let the Maine Legislature get in the way of Maine people trying to get a COVID-19 vaccine," he said. "I’m grateful to Chuck, the hardworking staff at MaineGeneral, and the people at the Augusta Civic Center for being great partners on this effort.”
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