Hospital to ask for more sales tax help

Hospital trustees are slowly working up the nerve to pop the sales tax revenue question to members of the Iola council and Allen County Commission.
Jim Gilpin, a member of the Allen County Regional hospital board of trustees, asked fellow members Tuesday to consider having representatives attend the city and county meetings to answer any questions councilmen and commissioners may have about the hospital’s recent audit. Discussions were sparked by a June 2 article published in the Iola Register, which reported the hospital had fallen short of projections made in 2010 by the BKD accounting firm. The hospital has asked BKD to formulate new projections. 
Alan Weber, county counselor, suggested the city and county should be included in discussions before new parameters are decided. Critical to the balance sheet is the amount of tax that both the city and county are willing to commit to, administrator Tony Thompson added.
The hospital depends on the $60,000 to $65,000 it receives monthly in city and county sales tax revenues to help pay interest on bond principal.
“It only makes sense since both the city and the county sales tax revenues are currently part of the repayment package that we should report how we are doing on that and let them know that they are pretty important to the repayment of the bonds…and give them the opportunity to start the dialogue on whether or not they are going to continue to do that,” Weber said.
Thompson, Larry Peters, the hospital’s chief financial officer, and Loren Korte, hospital trustee, agreed to attend the meetings. Gilpin excused himself from attending, stating his affiliation with the Community National Bank, which owns part of the bond debt, could be a conflict of interest.   
Patti Boyd outlined the intention of the visits as setting up lines of communication and to find out what kind of questions the city and county has.
 
IN OTHER NEWS Larry Walden spoke to trustees about the hospital’s need for more space for rotating specialists and new doctors like Terry Schwab, who utilizes temporary space. He suggested that a modular building may be an option and presented information on several units.
Trustee Sean McReynolds suggested Walden’s information be forwarded to the hospital’s finance committee for further review.
Thompson said that in regards to more space, the board is not ready to present any ideas or to ask the city or county for financial assistance.
Boyd nodded in agreement and said, “But we are looking at it.”