Chickamauga Family Practice will soon have a new owner: The City of Chickamauga.

The city council, during its Nov. 2 meeting, was unanimous in offering $350,000 for the purchase of the physicians' office and property located on U.S. Highway 27.

The clinic was closed last month as part of bankrupt Hutcheson hospital's cost-cutting measures.

Council members agreed that the city and nearby residents benefit from having a nearby doctor's office.

The abrupt closing of Family Practice had left many of the clinic's roughly 800 patients without a primary care physician and elected officials expressed hope that the facility will soon reopen.

To staff the clinic, a three-member committee consisting of councilmen Randal Dalton and Evitte Parrish along with city manager Micheal Haney will review a tentative leasing arrangement with CHI Memorial Medical Group to operate the Chickamauga clinic.

CHI Memorial recently reached a comparable agreement with the Dade County Industrial

Development Authority following Hutcheson's sale of a similar clinic in Trenton

Details of the sale and lease will be made public as soon as the deal can close, as officials said they want their hometown clinic to reopen as quickly as possible.

(Walker County Messenger)