The Health Department and Aging and Family Services are in partnership, hoping  to obtain a new wellness center for Keyser. Land has already been purchased from BB&T Bank and an architectural design is being drawn up. 
“Before we can acquire a building and funding, we need to have some type of drawing on paper,” said A. Jay Root, Health Department Administrator. “This is something I have wanted to do since I started nine years ago. I have finally gotten to a point in my administration were I have time to work on it.”
Root noted that the idea of partnership was birthed on a recent trip to Mineral County Days in Charleston.
“I think we have a big need in our community for a wellness center,” he said. “We don’t have anything of that nature in this area and I think it would serve the surrounding areas as well.”
Root and Scott Mallery, director of Aging and Family Services, have travelled to Berkley Springs and Hampshire and Hardy counties to visit the wellness centers there. Both Root and Mallery noted that there were various aspects from the wellness centers that they would like to duplicate in the proposed one for this area.
“We’re going to take the best ideas of the other wellness centers and put them forward in our center,” said Mallery.
Root noted that the wellness center would focus more on the physical aspect of health, whereas the health department itself focuses on a more preventative tact. Root emphasized that the wellness center  would benefit young and old alike.
“West Virginia ranks down near the top of obesity and bottom of nutrition, overall,” he said.  “The overall goal of a wellness center would be to reverse this trend,” said Root.
Ideally, Root would like to see a wellness center that contained a workout facility, swimming pool, and a rehabilitation area.
“The amount of funding we receive will determine the type of center we can build,” Mallery added. 
Mallery noted that currently, Aging and Family services has three separate buildings: a main office, a senior center, and a health and wellness building, which is not very conducive for seniors travelling by car or on foot.
“It’s small for what we have,” he said. “We’d like to have enough funding so that both the senior center aspect and the wellness center aspect can be built at the same time.”
He said if that can’t happen, the senior center is the main focus. A wellness center could be added at a later date, if necessary.
Root and Mallery are currently working to find funding for the project.