Hospital to receive $1 million

Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County will receive $1 million from the county to help pay for a central plant upgrade project.

During the Sweetwater County Commissioners meeting Tuesday morning, the Commissioners unanimously approved a budget amendment for $1 million to help pay for the $3.2 million project.

“We want to start addressing some of those needs and we’d appreciate your assistance on it,” MHSC CEO Irene Richardson said.

According to documents in the county commissioners’ packet, ST+B Engineering submitted a proposal for the proposed $3.2 million project.

Some of the items on the priority list include, replacing chillers, pumps and cooling towers in the chiller plant and a new deaerator tank, piping and feedwater treatment ancillaries in the heating plant.

The MHSC building is 40 years old and most of the maintenance equipment is as old as the building itself. The equipment is reaching the end of its useful life.

Commissioner John Kolb said the hospital needs 100 percent backup because it can’t go down. “Because it’s critical that they maintain heating and cooling,” he said.

“You’ve got some other serious maintenance issues besides this,” Chairman West said.

He then asked about the boilers.

MHSC facilities director Jim Horan said even though the boiler is at the end of its life it is still passing inspections and is in pretty good shape.

In a letter to the board from Richardson, she stated “Your generous offer would assist us greatly in addressing this critical infrastructure upgrade, which is essential to the delivery of patient care.”

All commissioners agreed the upgrades are needed to keep the hospital running efficiently.

“We understand that there are some funds available due to savings from the bond issuance costs of the special purpose sixth-cent project. We plan on using these funds to pay for the remaining balances of this project,” Richardson’s letter states.

Since the commissioners addressed their concerns at the last meeting, they didn’t have many questions to ask. A motion was made and approved.

Richardson thanked the commissioners for their continued support.