KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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Since 2011, the Cass Community Health Foundation has operated out of a small, refurbished home in downtown Belton.
Foundation leaders and donors cut the ribbon Tuesday night on a $5.1 million, low-income dental clinic.
"Well done," Presiding Cass County Commissioner Bob Huston told the foundation partners and board members.
The new facility sits on Markey Parkway south of Menards in Belton.
Cass Community Health Foundation operates another facility in Harrisonville.
Throughout it's presence in rural Cass County, the clinics have served 14,000 patients, prioritizing children, teens, and pregnant women, including people on Medicaid or low-income patients.
"There is a lack of dental services taking Medicaid in Cass County," said President and CEO of the Cass Community Health Foundation, Cynthia Randazzo. "We have gone from a very small building in downtown Belton to this fabulous building here, expanding access and increasing four operatories to eight operatories."
Kevin Wood, chairman of the Cass Community Health Foundation, told KSHB 41 when he started with the organization the most vulnerable young patients entered the facility with an average of seven cavities.
That number has grown to nine and he said the need is only growing in the Belton area and surrounding communities.
"We never turn a child away," he explained. "This is not just today, this is hope, this is forever. We will be able to serve people for as long as there is need. So far, we just see more need."
The expanded operating space within the clinic will hopefully take the burden off its other clinics, while allowing their staff to serve patients from outside the area.
"The people of Cass County have been so supportive of us since we opened our first clinic in 2011 and our second one in Harrisonville in 2015," Randazzo said. "They have stood behind us in advocating for the work were doing, volunteering, and the donating... I cannot thank everyone enough."
For more information on the Cass County Dental Clinic, click here.
