From our March 15, 2001, edition.

Bill would help local district with goals 

Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

A bill currently before the Texas Legislature would slightly broaden the powers of the Donley County Hospital District and assist the district with meeting its long-term goals.

House Bill 2488, introduced last week by Rep. Warren Chisum, would amend the district’s enabling legislation to allow the hospital board to issue revenue bonds to restructure debt and to permit the district to lease office space to the Texas Department of Human Services. 

The bill was being considered by the House County Affairs Committee at press time.

“When we got the vote of the people in August 1998, it was a mandate to provide services to the people of Donley County,” said district administrator Alan Graham, referring to an election in which local citizens voted 348 to 216 to prevent the hospital board from selling the Medical Center Nursing Home.

Since that vote, the district has paid off the bonds issued in 1971 to build the Medical Center and has undertaken a $1.4 million renovation of the 30-year-old facility.

Graham said the district had planned to pay for the renovation with revenue from the state’s tobacco settlement, which was expected to be more than $200,000 per year. But the district only received approximately $20,000 from the tobacco fund last year, and that amount may be lower this year.

With the renovation nearing completion this month, the district’s construction note is up for renewal on June 30, 2001. The district is paying interest of one under prime on the note, which was 8.5 percent a couple of weeks ago, Graham said. By restructuring the debt with general obligation tax revenue notes, the district could get a lower interest rate – perhaps less than five percent. The bonds would be set up on a 15-year payout.

“This will give us a way to manage the debt now that we don’t have the resources we had anticipated,” he said.

Graham said the hospital district has kept the same tax rate for three years, and he does not foresee any changes in that rate. The ten new beds added to the nursing home through the renovation are expected to generate a gross income of $240,000 per year with the district netting half of that.

“We’ve been able to update a 30-year-old facility, which was in need of a facelift and facing mounting infrastructure problems. And with the 10 beds, we will generate the revenue to pay for it without effecting John Q. Public’s tax bill.”

The new beds will be certified this month, and there is already a waiting list of potential new residents, Graham said.

Next on the hospital district’s agenda is a plan that would centralize all health services in Donley County in one location by creating a complex on the grounds near the Medical Center. The plan calls for three new buildings to be constructed on three acres south of the nursing home. These would include a new clinic, an EMS building, and a community services building, which would be available for lease to health service providers, the Texas Department of Health (TDH), and the Texas Department of Human Services (TDHS).

“These plans are nothing new,” Graham said. “We’ve been talking about doing this since 1998.”

The proposed new rural health clinic will be built by Dr. John Howard, whose current facility is not adequate to meet the growing needs of the people of Donley County. The district will either sell land or lease it on a long-term basis to Dr. Howard, who will construct a building between 3,500 and 4,000 square feet.

An adjoining facility would house the Associated Ambulance Authority and EMS personnel, which are now located in a temporary rented facility across from the fire station. Co-locating the EMS with the rural health clinic and new advances in telemedicine will offer the opportunity to provide expanded emergency medical services, Graham said. The EMS building will encompass approximately 3,000 square feet.

The proposed community services building would house Department of Health offices and immunization clinics, physical therapy services currently provided through an agreement with Collingsworth General Hospital, and Department of Human Services offices.

By law the district can lease space to provide medical services, but since TDHS – which operates Medicaid and food stamp programs for the state – isn’t a medical service per se, leasing space to that agency may have been called into question. HB 2488 will specifically allow the district to lease space to TDHS.

Graham said the EMS and community services facilities will be built with a grant from the Amarillo Area Foundation and with other funds on hand.

“We want to be able to provide adequate services to the people and visitors of Donley County,” Graham said. “That’s our commitment, and the time is right to do this.”

Dr. Howard has expressed satisfaction with the hospital district’s plans, calling them “forward thinking and planning at its best.”

Groundbreaking on the new buildings could take place this summer. An open house of the renovated Medical Center Nursing Home is slated for May.

The Donley County Hospital District was created by an act of the 61st Legislature in 1969.