News

Olney Hamilton Hospital showed a net profit for the first nine months of 2022 and is shaping up its balance sheet ahead of a search for financing for a new hospital plant to replace the 60-year-old existing building, OHH Administrator Mike Huff told the OHH Board of Directors at their Jan. 27 meeting. The hospital showed year-to-date net income of $800,000 at a time when many rural hospitals are struggling, Mr. Huff said. The hospital’s debt is trending up over 2021, with $6 million on the books compared to $4 million, board member Lonnie Rue said. “That may be a challenge we have to overcome,” he said. The hospital also took delivery of a new ambulance, the second purchased with help from federal emergency funding related to the COVID pandemic, he said. Dr. Mark Mankins told the board that an experienced orthopedic surgeon is talking to the hospital about performing minor orthopedic procedures such as carpal tunnel releases. The hospital also approved three new temporary physicians, he said. The medical staff ordered two new scopes for endoscopies and colonoscopies, Mr. Huff said. Lastly, four board members are up for re-election in the May 6 hospital board election. They are Lonnie Rue, Dale Lovett, Jeremy Johnson and David Lund. If no challengers file by the Feb. 17 deadline, the board will cancel the election, Mr. Huff said.

County Commissioners reorganized the Young County Historical Commission, adding a board of seven voting members that includes Precinct 4 Commissioner Jimmy Wiley. Mr. Wiley has been a critic of the Historical Commission’s plan to renovate the 1921 Jail on Graham’s town square and its practice of taking donations through the County. Judge Win Graham said he and Mr. Wiley met with YCHC co-directors Susan Smith and Julia Cox to come up with the board configuration and to discuss whether to form a 501c3 tax-exempt organization to allow the YCHC to raise money apart from the County. In addition to Mr. Wiley, the new YCHC board members are Ms. Smith, Ms. Cox, Jim Hammond, James Hayes, Mary Faye Orr and Wayne Trice. The Commissioners approved the new board and decided to allow an unlimited number of volunteer, non-voting members to join the YCHC. The new board will be tasked with deciding what YCHC business to bring to the Commissioners Court.

Sixth-generation cattle rancher Tucker Brown was named the 2022 Advocate of the Year by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, thanks to his “creative storytelling” about his family’s life and legacy at the R.A. Brown Ranch in Throckmorton County. Mr. Brown received the award at the NCBA Convention in New Orleans on Feb. 1.