Supporters of Portland’s India Street Public Health Center have submitted a petition to city officials opposing the proposed closure of the clinic.

More than 2,100 signatures were gathered using an online petition posted on moveon.org. More than 1,100 signatures are from Portland residents, according to the organizers, while the other signers are from outside the city and, in many cases, outside the state.

A patient at the clinic, David Jon Timm, started an online petition a little more than a week ago. A group of clinic supporters submitted boxes filled with the signatures to Mayor Ethan Strimling on Wednesday, with copies for the City Council and City Manager Jon Jennings.

Jennings has proposed closing the clinic and transitioning services to the Portland Community Health Center, an independently run nonprofit on Park Avenue that the city helped create in 2007.

About 60 residents, patients and advocates of the India Street clinic packed council chambers in City Hall on Monday night to pressure councilors to keep the center open and take more time to study how closing the clinic would affect its more than 1,000 patients, many of whom have complex medical conditions such as HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and drug addiction.

City councilors are scheduled to vote on the $236 million proposed municipal budget, including the plan to close to the India Street clinic, on May 16.


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