News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Clay County Commission will vote Monday night on whether to provide money to a company interested in reopening Cumberland River Hospital.
During a commission planning session Monday, Boa Vida Executive Darrwin Perkins said the company intends to purchase the closed hospital. Perkins said the company had yet to secure the funding. Commissioner Winton Young then asked commissioners to add a resolution to the next week’s commission agenda, matching Celina’s one-time payment to Boa Vida.
“I just want to know if we are going to make a move on the information that we have received, or whether we are going to sit back or not do anything,” Young said. “I just don’t know where the commissioners stand. We already know where the city stands. They have already made a commitment , and I think they are waiting on what we are going to do.”
The Celina Board of Aldermen approved $125,000 to Boa Vida after the hospital operates for six months. Another $125,000 would come after a full year.
Commissioner Bryan Coons said he is concerned that the company will ask for more money in the future.
“What would the commission do if they got the doors open and they asked for $500,000 a year,” Coons said. “I’m just asking. (…) It just seems like every time we get any money from the federal government, there is always somebody trying to come and get it.”
As the plan stands today, the healthcare company’s payment would come out of the county’s American Rescue Plan money of about $1.4 million. Commissioner Dorothy Forney said she believes it is money well spent.
“To me a hospital would be very important for the county,” Forney said. “That would be one of the most important things that I would know of.”
Mayor Luke Collins said the facility price remains at $1.2 million. Perkins said it would cost another few million to get the facility in operation. The county commission will vote on the contribution to reopening the hospital on Monday.
