CLINTON — Warner Hospital & Health Services CEO Paul Skowron reported during Tuesday’s city council meeting that the hospital’s new walk-in clinic saw 10 patients during its first morning of operation on Tuesday.

The walk-in clinic is housed in the Family Medicine office and accepts patients 5 years of age and older who present with any of a variety of common illnesses.  The illnesses that will be treated at the walk-in clinic include, common cold, rashes or skin irritations, painful or burning urination, allergy symptoms, pink eye, earaches, cough, sore throat, flu symptoms, sports physicals

If an illness is something else, patients will be directed to the emergency department or their primary care physician, said Susanna Legner, RN, BSN, Chief Nursing Officer at Warner Hospital.

Medical personnel serving walk-in clinic patients will be the same clinicians in the Family Medicine office but will rotate into the walk-in clinic, said Legner.

The walk-in clinic hours are the same as the hospital’s family medicine office, Monday-Wednesday, 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Thursday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

After a six-month trial, a review of the clinic’s patient volume and community reception will determine if longer hours would be appropriate. 

Police chief Ben Lowers recognized Sgt. Todd Ropp for his 10 years with the Clinton Police Department.  Ropp is the department’s senior sergeant, serves as the office’s IT tech, oversees the field training program and sex offender registration program.

And, public works supervisor Steve Lobb asked motorists to drive carefully this weekend if forecasts of freezing rain turn out to be accurate.

“If that happens, we ask folks to give us some room and be cautious,” Lobb said.

The council placed on file a contract with Core & Main to conduct a residential water meter replacement program.

The company would install an antenna on top of Clinton’s west side water tower.  The new meters would transmit the data to the antenna, which would enter the system for processing.  This would eliminate the need to manually read each local meter.

The system also would reduce or eliminate error occurring at the individual meters.  Some meters removed locally displayed as much as a 100,000-gallon deficit between what the meter measured and what it sent to the display mounted on the exterior of homes and buildings.

The new meters would take a reading each hour and transmit that data to the collection point.

About 50 of the newer meters already are installed locally and are read by water department staff using hand-held units.

Those meters would be compatible with the new system.