BRISTOL — The planned move of the Bristol Internal Medicine doctors’ offices to the Bristol Works campus this summer could pave the way for a dentist to move into Bristol. The venue would be Bristol Internal Medicine’s soon-to-be vacated space at 6 Park Place, which at one point in its history hosted a dentist.
A nonprofit group has been working for the past several years to establish an “Addison County Dental Center.” The organization has successfully raised a combined total of around $350,000 in grants, donations and federal earmarks to equip the center to minimize debt for a dentist who would then be able to take on a substantial number of Medicaid and under-insured patients.
Organizers had identified a spot in Middlebury’s Battell Block on Merchants Row in which to locate the dental center. But on four separate occasions, center organizers thought they had recruited a dentist, only to have the person back out for various reasons.
“The Battell (Block owners) were fabulous and kept the faith as long as they possibly could,” dental center board member Peg Martin said. She now hopes the center will be able to take BIM’s spot, a location that already features an Addison County Transit Resources bus stop.
“It is a very exciting opportunity,” Martin said. “The location is being looked at.”
She stressed, however, that such a plan would need to be OK’d by the landlord, Bristol town officials and the granting authorities that have put up the resources for the center.