Despite the work going on all around it, the St. Luke’s wound care center in Lehighton continues to operate.

Work began last week on the new Carbon County Children and Youth Services building in Lehighton.

Crews demolished one section of 525 Iron St., which had been vacant for years, and will rebuild that portion of the building to better serve the needs of the county.

However, the St. Luke’s wound care center remains fully operational, according to Cally Richardson, physician assistant.

“We still have our full wound care center in full operation, not affecting our office at all,” Richardson said. “There’s nothing going on within the wound care center, but we are still seeing a full patient schedule.”

Richardson said the facility also offers hyperbaric oxygen therapy, so it does have the hyperbaric chamber going on.

Tara Lorenzo, RN clinical coordinator, noted that while the demolition work is done, they’re still doing construction.

“They update us throughout the week to let us know what’s going on,” Lorenzo said. “We’re working together so that we can keep things safe for our patients and our staff here.”

The St. Luke’s wound care center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that the completion of the front of the building will now be weather dependent, with an anticipated completion date in April.

The commissioners hired several companies in October to complete the work to make the space ready for Children and Youth. The contracts combined total $2,518,060, which will be covered using American Rescue Plan funding and then reimbursed by the Children and Youth department.

The county is demolishing that portion and rebuilding is due to costs. It will cost less this way than to renovate the existing structure.

Carbon County purchased the building from St. Luke’s last year at a cost of $500,000.

Carbon County currently has 26 employees in the Children and Youth department but will be expanding to help lower the caseloads per caseworker as per the state requirements.

That department uses 4,800 square feet at its present location in Jim Thorpe, but has outgrown that size.