Is it "Chinook" or "Sweet" Medical Center? It depends, but yes.

Reporter's note: In June, 2016, Sweet Medical Center hosted the monthly Business After Hours event in Chinook. While writing a short history of the medical center before the After Hours, I was surprised when managers at the center said, "We don't know a lot of the specifics of the center's history." I decided to piece together a short history of the medical center and deal with why the facility is locally called both the Sweet Medical Center and the Chinook Medical Center.

Fortunately, there are people around who were involved in the creation of the Chinook Medical Center. Dr. Larry Obie, who still operates the center's optometry service, was one of the original providers that joined to form the Chinook Medical Center in 1980. Other folks, involved with the center over the years and at various critical times, also provided information for the story.

As usual, I had to sort through a lot of material and choose the information that I felt best told the story. And if I got something wrong, please provide details through the newspaper's office and I'll share the new information.

1980: a plan for a community

medical center is announced

The Blaine County Development Corporation (BCDC) was a local group of citizens that promoted several community development projects. At the Corporation's 1980 January annual meeting, leaders announced plans "...to construct a medical clinic on land south of the Chinook Eagles. The building is expected to house a dentist and two resident doctors (Chinook Opinion, January 16, 1980)." Soon after the initial announcement plans were expanded to include an optometry practice and a pharmacy.

The administrator and business manager of the Havre Clinic also was at the meeting. They explained the clinic's intent to lease and equip the new medical clinic. The Havre Clinic was, "recruiting qualified people to staff the clinic and assist Dr. R.H. Leeds." Leeds, who had practiced medicine in Chinook for about 30 years, sold his practice to the Havre Clinic and would remain, for a time, at the new clinic once it was completed.

By March, Marshall Erdman and Associates, a national firm specializing in designing and constructing medical clinics, was into the architectural design process for the new Chinook Medical Center. Construction was expected to begin in April with occupancy expected within 120 days of the start of construction.

In June, 1980, a contract for construction was completed. The new facility would be 6800 square feet including a parking lot and outside landscaping. The $650,000 cost of the clinic facility was financed by industrial revenue bonds, all of which were purchased by a sole investor in Montana.

When the building was completed, in December, 1980, the development corporation (BCDC) sold their interest to four tenants: The Havre Clinic for the medical portion (54.7%) of the building; Dr. Larry Obie, Optometry (19.0%); Dr. Tony Braunreiter, Dentistry (18.8%) and George Stebar, Pharmacy (7.5%). Each of the four tenants would buy their portion of the building.

The new providers had local connections and a condominium association

Dr. Leeds continued, for just a few years, as a part of the Havre Clinic's operation in

Chinook. Dr. Larry Obie, recently graduated from optometry school, was in a partnership in Havre and had remodeled a building in downtown Chinook (O'Brien's Variety Store) to have a practice there on certain days of the week. Dr. Obie joined the new clinic because he saw the benefit to having multiple providers in one location.

Dr. Tony Braunrieter had lived in Chinook from 1971-1975, was just graduating from dental school and came to the center in January, 1981. George Stebar, the pharmacist, owned Martens Pharmacy in Chinook (where Inman Insurance is now located). Stebar reduced stock at his old place to fit his pharmacy into the smaller area at the new center.

Dr. Braunrieter, a dentist, left the center and Dr. Dan Harry took over the dental practice in 1985. Dr. Robert Chaffin is currently operating the dental clinic. George Stebar left the pharmacy sometime in the mid-1990's. Kelcey and Nancy Demert reopened the pharmacy in 1994. Needing more room, they relocated their pharmacy to what is now Ace Hardware and eventually to their current location, on Indiana Street, in 2012. The pharmacy area at the center was later converted to offices for the medical portion of the center in the mid-1990's.

Dr. Obie said, "My taking on the purchase of the optometry portion of the new building was a big step for me. I'd just graduated from school and taking on the $100,000+ bond payment was scary but it's worked out well." The building is owned by the providers through a condominium association. Dr. Obie explained, "As providers, we share the parking lot, the roof and the common waiting area. I own my part and the rest is owned by the medical and dental groups." The costs associated with the building are shared, proportionately, by each of the three providers.

1988: new direction for the medical portion of Center

Sometime in the mid-1980's the Havre Medical Clinic had financial difficulties. At that time, Havre clinic abandoned the Chinook facility and Clay McCartney guaranteed the loan payments to the bond holder. The dental, optometry and pharmacy parts of the center were not affected by the leaving of the Havre Clinic.

The financial problems of the medical portion of the center resulted from reduced patient numbers due an inadequate amount of medical staff. In a January, 1988 issue of the "Chinook Opinion," the medical clinic made a public plea, "please pay your past bills." Clay McCartney had recently died and his family wanted to continue supporting the medical clinic but needed accounts paid for operating funds.

In November, 1988, the Sweet Nursing Home received a substantial sum of money from the estate of Lloyd Sweet who died earlier in the year. Part of a story in the "Chinook Opinion" noted, "The prospects for local, full time medical care took a definite boost with the announcement this week that the Chinook Medical Center has been taken over by the Sweet Nursing Home organization." The medical portion of the center was headed for a significant change.

The sequence and specifics are a bit murky, but here's the basics of what happened. The Sweet Nursing Home Board incorporated the medical service portion of the Chinook Medical Center as a new non-profit organization and set up a beginning governing board. The McCartney family signed over the building and debt to the new entity.

This new non-profit entity was named the Sweet Medical Center. In reality, the name of the entire facility never changed from the Chinook Medical Center (readers will note that's the name still on the sign in front). A November, 1988 news story read, "...Dr. Harry and Dr. Larry Obie will be unaffected by the change since each is buying his portion of the building separately under a condominium arrangement."

Financially, to keep the medical portion going, two things happened not necessarily at the same time. The Sweet Nursing Home, with a sizable amount of money available from Lloyd Sweet's estate, made either a no-interest or low-interest loan to the medical part of the center. That was eventually paid back. Robert Sizemore, President of Western Bank, arranged several 'gifts' that also helped keep the medical part of the center operating.

Things change, but technically, not the name

The medical part of the center began to operate as a community health center, a designation for care providers in areas that are underserved and underinsured. Health care is now provided on a sliding scale based on patient income. The medical clinic is governed by a board of directors and, by law, a majority of those board members must also be patients at the center.

One thing that did not change, from the Chinook Medical Center's inception through its changes in 1988, is the name of the overall clinic. While most locals refer to the three clinics as "Sweet Medical Center," that's incorrect. The entire facility is still the Chinook Medical Center. The Sweet Medical Center, a non-profit since 1988, is the portion providing medical services, x-rays and laboratory services. The optometry and dental services are still privately owned and receive no government funds on behalf of patients.

So, if a reference is to the medical portion of the clinic, that would be the Sweet Medical Center. The Chinook Medical Center would include all the current providers-the medical, optometry and dental clinics combined.