Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Board, JPs Meet to Discuss Future of Hospital, Property

The Board of Governors of the Nevada County Hospital continues its work on collecting from those who owe the hospital, it was reported last week in a special meeting of the board and the Quorum Court.

The meeting was held to give the Quorum Court an update of the goings-on of the former hospital in preparation of turning the facility over to the county, which owns the physical plant. The only thing is, only four JP's showed up.

County Judge John Barham appealed to all present before the meeting to let no hard feelings be shown. He said the Quorum Court was an elective body, answering to the voters. He said the Board of Govenors had taken a lot of complaints and very few compliments, and then he made remarks concerning the closing of the hospital.

"I'd like to phase this thing down," he said in regards to clearing up what needed to be done, "and settle it without looking at the past and pointing fingers. Let's just do it in the interest of Nevada County."

The county has already settled with General Electric Credit Corporation for $300,000 to pay off the remaining debt, which was almost one million dollars. Hospital attorney Glenn Vasser said that the county had been notified that GECC in turn wired the funds to the bank which owned and was trustee of the bonds, and that the bonds are now satisfied.

The JP's were asked by the board how the maintenace of the grounds and facilities should be paid, if the county would now pick up this amount each month.

The JP's were told that from $150,000 to $250,000 could still be collected on the old accounts receivable over the next two and one-half months, or until the first of the year. Very little could be collected after that, it was determined.

Buneva Wood, who is directly involved in collecting the old accounts, said the collection was delayed by six weeks or more in August when the facility was without power. She said during the failure the experienced employees in that department quit and the ones remaining had to be trained to work the computer programs, thus the delay.

Wood said there were close to 4,000 accounts in all to be collected. Most collections are only bringing in a small amount at a time. She said that the employees are mailing out 2,500 statements at a time.

Wood reported that $123,000 was collected in August before the outage, $21,000 was collected in September and $18,000 through the 17th for the month of October.

Monthly costs are $15,000, it was reported, to keep the present employees and other minor expenses. The city's electric bill is not being paid at all.

Because the hospital is closed, Vasser suggested that the board continue its function as it was when there was a hospital, but that the control of the facility should be turned over to the Quorum Court as soon as possible. He warned, however, that the county doesn't need to take over the accounts receivable.

"It is not a hospital anymore, but collecting and paying bills incurred when it was a hospital, and it is the business of the board," Vasser said, "but at some point the county should take over control of the facility."

He said in essence the hospital has been "leasing the physical building and grounds for use, but it belongs to the county." He said, however, that the county did not run the facility and make debts and that he thought it unwise for the county to take over that part of what remains of the hosptial.

Vasser said from how he read the statue concerning who owned the physical plant, that since it is no longer a hospital it is the county's.

He also said to sell the former hospital building and various properties would require a vote of the people in his opinion.

Wood said that $443,000 is owed vendors, and that they were being told they would be paid. She wanted to know if she should continue telling them that.

Karen Ward, administrator of the former hospital, pleaded with the JP's present to pay the vendors whenever the county sells the property.

She said the hospital used $275,000 of its funds to help the county pay GECC the $300,000. She said the hospital could have paid off part of its bills with the funds, but that she understood the county would pay the vendors when it sold the property.

The Board of Governors agreed. However, one JP warned that the county may not have the funds to pay off the vendors.

She said the hospital owes St. Michael in Texarkana $118,000. Many drugs were bought from St. Michael when drug companies refused to sell to the hospital. In addition to St. Michael funds are owed Medical Park Hospital in Hope and Baptist Health in Little Rock.

It was also reported that the hospital owes Netlife in Texarkana several thousand dollars, because the hospital used subsidy money from the county instead of passing it on to the ambulance service last year.

GECC has appraised the properties of the hospital at $460,000. This includes the former hospital facility, the County Health Department, the building where Nevada County Ambulance Service is housed, the walking track and the administrator's home.

Vasser urged the JP's present to get the Quorum Court moving. He said the property to be sold needed to be specified and surveyed out. The County Health Department facility is not to be sold.

Gary Lewis, one of the JP's present, said the hospital board should continue to maintain the facility until the first of the year, and that the board should continue to collect the accounts receivable. At that time, he said, the Quorum Court can get a better view of the problems.

For those interested the facilities are for lease. If someone wants to buy the former hospital, it can be leased with an option to buy. The approval of the sell, however, has to be done by the taxpayers of the county.