County may provide land for hospital

Glenn County supervisors are thinking about giving some county land to the Glenn Medical Center so it can build a new hospital.

Board Chairman Steve Soeth and Finance Director Don Santoro recently met with hospital administrators, Soeth said, and discussed the option.

However, the board took no action Tuesday and instructed Soeth to go back to hospital officials and see if Glenn County can end its $300,000 annual subsidy to the hospital.

The purpose of the $300,000 was to help the hospital keep its emergency room open, Soeth explained.

Hospital officials need full control of the property in order to secure construction funding, he added.

Soeth said the emergency room would need to continue operating during the building phases otherwise the land would revert to the county.

The proposed construction would take up two-thirds of a block in the footprint of the north parking lot to the health services and probation department buildings, Soeth said.

County Counsel Huston Carlyle must develop a contract before the board can take action.

If the agreement is made, the county would be relieved of the $300,000 debt next year and in years to follow.

Supervisor Mike Murray suggested the hospital forgive $150,000 of the subsidy this year in order to get the land title.

The county already paid $75,000, Santoro said, and has another $75,000 to pay on the first installment.

There is $150,000 in the hospital fund now, Murray said, and it would be good, if possible, to save that for other county obligations in 2010-11.

"The big picture is it would be good for the county to get out of the hospital business," Supervisor Leigh McDaniel said. "Yet get a first-rate facility."

So Soeth said he "would go back and chat" with hospital officials about the proposal and bring the report back to the board.

Health Services Director Scott Gruendl said he supports getting a new hospital facility, but he warned against the county "giving away the farm," referring to the property.

He said there is goal to consolidate the Health Services and Human Resources Agencies into one facility down the road, and the land could be useful for that. But it also would be great to have the two agencies and the hospital on one campus.

Contact Rick Longley at 934-6800 or rlongley@tcnpress.com