In what County Commissioner John Kolb described as “critical” to the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County’s operations, the Sweetwater County Commission is moving forward with the process to approve a $1 million budget amendment to help the hospital pay for needed maintenance improvements.
During the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning, a motion was made and unanimously approved to move forward with getting the hospital on the agenda for the next meeting after Kolb gave the Commissioners an update on the hospital.
Kolb said the hospital board had a discussion with building and grounds about needed plant upgrades and how they wanted to proceed with prioritizing those needs. The plant itself, at the hospital, including the boiler, power plant and heating and cooling systems, are needing repairs. He said they are the structural backbone of the hospital and if any one of them went down the hospital will go down.
“There are issues that have never really been addressed,” Kolb said.
He said there are things that have gone well past their service life and can be inspected over and over, but that doesn’t mean they won’t fail.
“The hospital, frankly, doesn’t have enough money to cover the expense,” Kolb said. “They have some money.”
However, they are anticipating all of the repairs and upgrades to cost around $2 million.
“So, there’s a need,” Kolb said.
He said it is the county hospital and felt the county should help out and asked for the Commissioners to discuss splitting the cost of the project between the two entities.
Chairman Reid West said at the last meeting the hospital did tell them about some of these issues and discussed phasing the project.
Kolb said the hospital realized phasing might actually cost them more than if they just completed all the projects at one time.
“It’s gone to the point where it’s becoming a liability. It is a liability,” Kolb said.
He said it’s an important service in the county and supports the hospital.
West said they hospital has known about issues like this for a while and have been trying to plan for it.
Part of the money generated by the surgery center is going to help pay for some of the improvements.
Commissioner Wally Johnson wanted to make sure the hospital could match the $1 million the county would give.
“I’ve always been very supportive of the hospital. I’ve always felt it’s the No. 1,” Johnson said.
“All of us in Sweetwater County are dependent on that hospital. If it’s a crisis situation up there, I am obviously supportive of it,” Johnson said.
Johnson did request that hospital representatives need to come forward and make the formal request.
The Commissioners decided to draft a budget amendment and place it on the agenda for the next meeting and they will also host a public hearing on the proposed amendment.
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