PROCTORVILLE — Adding health care clinics at Proctorville and Aid is among the plans for $650,000 in federal funds awarded Wednesday to the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization.

The funds came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration.

“There is a lot of need out there in the community and we have a commitment to provide the highest quality of care to the community,” D.R. Gossett, director of the CAO, said.

The grant will fund a new CAO clinic across from Fairland East Elementary School and expand services at the former King’s Daughters Medical Center at Aid.

Right now the center at Aid provides information about physicians and services offered at other CAO centers.

“We were trying to come up with a way to fund that and now we have the ability to provide at least 20 hours,” Gossett said. “This is pretty great starting off.”

The Proctorville site will start out using the modular units currently at the soon-to-open St. Mary’s Medical Facility on State Route 141. Those units will be moved in July after the St. Mary’s site opens.

“We will add on to those a great deal,” Gossett said.

The site will offer pediatric dentistry and family practice.

The CAO is one of 219 centers across the country that were selected to receive the federal money, which is expected to create 5,600 jobs nationwide and provide access for health care to 1.25 million additional patients.

The funds locally will also provide coverage for patients who are uninsured or underinsured, allowing the CAO to charge by a sliding scale.

“With a partnership with St. Mary’s we are able to bring top quality service to those some may consider hard to serve,” Gossett said. “This allows us to provide that top quality care.”