After eight years of efforts to get funding to improve the Northome clinic’s building, the center recently received good news.

The clinic, operating under Scenic Rivers Health Services, was awarded a federal grant of almost $500,000 for a total renovation of the interior. The award was announced this month.

“The community is certainly pleased and excited that it will be a major renovation of the clinic,” said Mike Holmes, CEO of Scenic Rivers Health Services. “The building was first constructed in 1959 — it’s been there for a while. Just to see a complete renovation — the fit, finish, mechanics, code regulations — I think is a good thing for everyone.”

The hallways and doorways are currently narrow; the renovation will allow widening of space. The project will also entail changing all bathrooms to make them handicap accessible, Holmes said. The building will be updated in terms of electrical systems, lighting and mechanics, he added.

“It’ll be everything from the floor to the ceiling,” Homes said. “We’ll be upgrading the facility to meet current requirements.”

The grant of $498,611 will cover about 87 percent of the cost of the project. The clinic’s internal revenue sources will fund the rest of the renovation — the total project is estimated to cost about $575,000, according to Holmes.

“Without (the grant), because of the dollar amount, we didn’t have enough funding to do the project, so we had been looking for alternatives,” Holmes said. “We’ve done some small projects — a new roof and replacing windows — but certainly the interior needed a lot of work.”

The health service applied for the grant for its Northome clinic about a year-and-a-half ago, Holmes said.

The construction will take about a year, and Holmes said he hopes it will be complete by summer 2013. The clinic will remain open during the renovation, he added.

The grant comes from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services —  part of the Immediate Facility Improvement Grant Awards program. Several grants — totaling more than $728 million for almost 400 renovation and construction projects — were awarded nationwide as part of a series of capital investments under the Affordable Care Act. The funding is meant to expand health centers and expand access to patients. Lake Superior Community Health Center also received a grant, as did about a dozen clinics in the Twin Cities area.

The Northome clinic, which is staffed by a nurse practitioner and a schedule of visiting physicians, is a family medicine facility. It serves about 4,200 patients a year from Northome and its surrounding area — some from Blackduck, Kelliher and Mizpah, Holmes said.

Scenic Rivers operates other clinics in Big Falls, Bigfork, Cook and Floodwood.