Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez speaks at a news conference Thursday at a United Health Centers clinic site. UHC CEO Justin Preas stands behind him. Photo by Ben Hensley

Fresno City Councilmember Luis Chavez summoned the media on Thursday morning to discuss ongoing delays hampering the opening of a much-needed medical clinic in Southeast Fresno.

United Health Centers’ 31st clinic, located in Calwa at the corner of Jensen and Cedar avenues, broke ground last June, aiming to serve the 93706, 93725 and 93702 area codes by providing health care options for the underserved communities. Many residents in this area are farmworkers and factory employees who lack alternative health care options due to financial reasons, geographic proximity or other reasons.

UHC President and CEO Justin Preas said last year that the clinic would be open by October of this year. Despite the building being nearly completed, PG&E has failed to power the building, leading to a continued risk of community health concerns, and doctors — hired to serve at the new clinic — potentially seeking alternate options due to the clinic not being open on schedule.

Chavez, who has been in communication with PG&E, said that in his conversations with the energy provider the company signaled that the project is a priority; Thursday morning, Chavez was promised by a PG&E employee that the contract between the utility provider and UHC to power the building would be executed within seven to ten days, with the fulfillment of the contract soon to follow.

When asked why it has taken this long, however, and why the contract — which initially indicated UHC’s new clinic would be fully operational by the end of this month — Chavez and Preas remained unsure as to why PG&E has dropped the ball.

“I’m a little bit perplexed,” Chavez said. “I know in the past, PG&E has had the authority to — if they’re so backed up and there was a bottleneck of projects — they had the discretion to contract some of the work out.”

Chavez added that, despite the uncertainty of which level at the energy provider fumbled on the UHC project, that he would continue to fight to ensure that the building receives power and will continue to monitor the situation over the coming weeks, intervening when necessary.

“Whatever the excuse is, I told them this morning that I did not want to hear any excuses, whether it’s manpower, whether it’s capacity, whether it’s a number of other issues of bureaucracy,” Chavez said. “My expectation is that their commitment will be fulfilled and that that contract will be executed and this clinic will be open.”

Several media members in attendance, Chavez said, reached out to PG&E following the press release for the news conference Thursday. Their efforts to contact the company, Chavez said, directly led to one of the three necessary items to be completed.

“I want to take a moment to specifically thank members of the media that called PG&E,” Chavez said. “As a result of your calls to them yesterday, they actually sent one of the contracts to our partners at United Health Centers for the gas component.”

Chavez said this health care access issue, with flu season just around the corner, will be given a high priority, ensuring that PG&E activates the new clinic’s utilities.

“We’ve opened a lot of different health centers around the city, both renovations and ground-up builds like this,” Preas said. “We haven’t had a project that’s been at this level [of delay], but I think every project we have to really factor in the amount of time that we give PG&E to get the work done, and that greatly affects the schedule.”

Preas said that while other centers have been affected by delays, this is the longest delay for the opening of a new UHC clinic.

For contrast, Preas added that the soon-to-open UHC clinic on the corner of First Street and Gettysburg Avenue broke ground shortly prior to the Jensen location; the 4615 N. First St. center is slated to open later this month.

PG&E issued a response addressing the issue, ensuring the public that it would continue to work diligently to complete the project.

“We will complete this project safely and as quickly as possible once we have our building permit,” PG&E said in an email to The Business Journal “We are targeting completion by the end of this month. We look forward to continuing to work with the city of Fresno to complete this project and to keep the community informed of its progress.”

The 12,500 square-foot facility now must wait for PG&E to complete their contracted work, which Chavez said he will hold the company to.

Preas said he remains disappointed at how long the project has been delayed and added that he still lacks any concrete commitment from the utility provider as to an estimated date of their contracted work.

“They could tell us ‘we can’t get out there for six months.’ They could tell us ‘we can get out there in three months,’” Preas said. “All I know is we should be opening our doors this month.”