The Cook County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday morning, April 11, to discuss the County’s share of funding for the new hospital project. The Commissioners reached no decision at the called meeting, but they are expected to discuss the issue again at the next regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, April 17, according to county officials.
In 2015, the County Commission unanimously passed a resolution to allocate an annual amount of $250,000 of the county government’s general fund budget to Cook Medical Center for 20 years, beginning October 1, 2015.
The Adel City Council also voted unanimously to provide funding to Cook Medical Center not to exceed $2 million to use for improvements in the hospital’s medical facilities. Those funds will be paid for over a 20-year period. With an overflow crowd of concerned citizens present, the County Commission voted unanimously March 6 to have County Attorney Daniel Connell move forward with drafting a Memorandum of Understanding and Intergovernmental Agreement with the Tift County Hospital Authority for the building/funding of a new hospital facility.
The new hospital will cost more than $35 million. Tift Regional has asked the community to pay $9.2 million at an interest rate of 3.75 percent over a 30-year time period. County Commission Chairman Dwight Purvis and County Administrator Faye Hughes, and Adel Mayor Buddy Duke and City Manager John Flythe, met Monday with Tift Regional officials to talk about $2 million in funding still needed for the local governments’ contribution to the project.
“There is a gap,” Flythe told the Adel News. “The City of Adel and County need to decide how we will fill the gap.” Local officials have considered organizing a capital campaign in which donors would contribute to the funding and reduce local tax money needed for the project.
One mill of the County’s portion alone of local property taxes, with exemptions calculated in, generates $306,761.
A petition recently presented to the County Commission with the names of 697 registered voters “to support keeping Cook Medical Center in Cook County” urged “the Cook County Board of Commissioners, the Mayor and City Council of Adel and other leaders to vote in favor of assuring that Tift Regional Health Services and Cook Medical Center are provided the necessary financial support to build the new Replacement Healthcare Facility in Cook County.”
The completed Memorandum of Understanding will state the specific amount that the County will contribute to the hospital project. Local officials may consider a final decision before the Hospital Authority of Tift County’s next regular monthly meeting on Wednesday, April 19.
The model for the modern new hospital facility with modern technology includes:
Urgent care center, surgical center, inpatient facilities, nursing home, geriatric psychiatric center and related medical facilities. In absence of an Emergency Room, there will be an urgent care center operating from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. All active medical staff in the community will have privileges to make rounds in the new hospital.
Every 90 days, Tift Regional Health Services will reevaluate the need to adjust hours of operation to accommodate more patients.
Meaning if they see a need to expand hours, they will. In addition, a 24-hour nurse line will be available for medical guidance, as it is now at the current urgent care facility.
The new Cook Medical Center would be a destination facility for specialty surgery services.
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