OHH board approves $33 mln bond issue

The Olney Hamilton Hospital board of directors unanimously voted on Friday to place a $33 million bond issue on the Nov. 7 ballot, asking Olney and Newcastle voters to approve the funds for a new hospital.

The principal amount of the bonds is $33 million, with a maximum maturity not to exceed 40 years and an interest rate not exceeding the maximum rate allowed by law, and payable from ad valorem taxes “for the purpose of purchasing constructing, acquiring, renovating and equipping of buildings and making improvements” within the hospital district, the election notice said.

The move to approve the bond election comes at a “once-in-a-generation” moment in which the approximately $2 million in annual revenue from the Young Wind Farm and Plug Power hydrogen plant, located in the hospital’s taxing district, can pay most of the cost of the new facility, board members said after the vote.

OHH director Ron Rogers said the new hospital plan was important to the health of the community and “necessary for us to have a successful future and growth.”

“We have a unique opportunity with the new wind farm that’s in our tax district that it will provide the tax basis to generate the funds that will allow us to expand and put this new renovation in,” he said. “Although the numbers are staggering, they are manageable with our expanded tax basis and we feel like this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fund a new hospital.”

OHH director Bob Craig acknowledged that the $33 million bond issue “is a lot of money” but added “the community isn’t spending it.”

“The money is going to have to come from the government and it is going to come through the windmills,” he said. “Just like the windmills saved us before when we did [the Olney Family Clinic and Wellness Center]. We had decided that we were going to do it and somehow or another we were going to pay for it through our operation. And then the windmills came along as a gift and made it easy and let us do it in a faster fashion.”

Mr. Craig wanted to see an expanded emergency room that is closer to the hospital entrance, a consolidated laboratory facility, and a tapered roof in the hospital plans, which have not yet been finalized.

The hospital has grown as a result of the addition of the Clinic and Wellness Center, OHH board president Dale Lovett said.

Hospital administrator Michael Huff said the 1964era building soon will not meet state and federal life safety codes. The main reason for building the new hospital now is “we won’t have to look at scrambling or being shut down in the future for not meeting the codes,” he said.

The current building is inefficient and does not support the hospital’s main line of business, which is outpatient care, he said. “There is a great deal of inefficiency in terms of physical design,” he said.

A new, modern facility also will help with staff recruitment and retention, he said.

“Obviously bringing them to a small community to an old hospital is extremely difficult. When you have a new plant and you’re doing well … it’s a lot easier to recruit skilled services as well as skilled physicians,” he said.