Doctor will get to stay, thanks to board

PHOTOGRAPHER: Lee Coleman

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The town will soon have a popular local doctor back in business.

Dr. Jama Peacock, a Greenfield native, said Thursday she will open her private medical practice soon at the historic Wayside Inn and Meeting Center at Locust Grove and Wilton roads.

The Town Board approved a change in zoning for the 14-acre property Thursday night that will allow a private medical practice not to exceed three doctors at the location.

“Greenfield is very lucky to have a local physician in their community,” said Fred McNeary Jr., who operates Prestwick Chase, an adult community on Denton Road in Greenfield.

McNeary said at a public hearing on the rezoning that he attended Saratoga Springs High School with Peacock back in the early 1980s. He is happy she has decided to return to Greenfield to practice medicine.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” McNeary said.

Peacock said she is negotiating a lease of the Wayside Inn with owners Dale and Karen Shook, who currently live in West Virginia.

“We are exploring long-term options,” Peacock said about the property.

Last year the property was on the real estate market for $1.6 million.

Peacock said her partners, whom she did not name, are planning to manage the bed and breakfast and conference site, gradually bringing them back into business.

“We will bring each use back into play, one at a time,” Peacock said.

Last year, Peacock had the old Greenfield general store at the corner of Route 9N and South Greenfield Road renovated into offices for her practice.

This project, however, didn’t work out as planned and Peacock had to move her practice out of that building some months ago. The issue is the subject of litigation that Peacock said she is not free to discuss.

Greenfield Supervisor Richard Rowland said Thursday the $100,000 loan Peacock received from the town’s Urban Development revolving loan fund to renovate the old general store has been restructured and is not a problem for the town or for Peacock.

About a dozen people attended the brief Town Board meeting to speak in support of Peacock’s zone change application. They took turns saying how good it will be to have a physician living and working in Greenfield.

More than a year ago the town granted the Wayside Inn property planned unit development (PUD) status, basically a rezoning that allows small conferences and a bed and breakfast to operate at the location.

The board on Thursday just amended the local law to add the private medical practice. The town Planning Board had recommended approval of the change last month.

Peacock said she will locate her practice in an existing building at the Wayside Inn. She said she will just have her practice at the site and may have another doctor use her facilities on her day off.

She is not planning to have three medical practices at the site as allowed by the amended PUD.

Peacock said her next step is to get a certificate of occupancy for the medical practice from the town. She said she will have to do some modest preparation of the office and install some technology required for her medical practice.

She said she wants to open her practice at the Wayside Inn “as fast as we can.”