On Tuesday, the St. Clair County Commission agreed to sign a non-binding letter of intent to move forward with the proposed hospital in Pell City.

“This has been going on for some period of time over the last few weeks and our focus over that period of time has been to get the letter of intent in the proper form,” County Attorney Bill Weathington told the commission and those gathered at the meeting. “Some of the challenges in getting the letter of intent in its proper form involved things like the financial structure of things, which has not been completely decided exactly and we don’t know what it will be with some of the debt service and some of the bonds to be issued. But, we’re trying to anticipate whether the rent [on the property] will be sufficient to cover that debt service or not. We’re trying to address all those things and if not, determine how to address them and all those things that have left us with a lot of question marks.”

Weathington went on to say, “What we have is this nonbinding letter of intent that allows us to move forward and get to work on the agreement. This will allow us to get some of the financing and focus on that.”

He said that St. Vincent’s will be able to look closer at helping to provide inmate healthcare and some other services that were a sticking point in the lead up to the agreement.

“I think that the bottom line is that everyone is close enough, and comfortable enough to move forward. We can come back at a later date and look at that agreement and some of these questions will be cleared up,” Weathington said.

“I’d just like to thank the chairman and Commissioner [Paul] Manning for keeping us informed and being on top of it,” Commissioner Jeff Brown said of the proceeding agreement.

Commissioner Paul Manning said after Brown’s comments, “I’d like to thank St. Vincent’s and all the members of this commission, who have really been interested in this and getting a quick response as far as getting all of the members to a meeting where everybody could hear and understand the same thing and asking the hard questions… I do think that we’ve made much progress in the last few weeks and I’m glad to be able to support this. I think that we’re on the right track and I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been in getting this thing accomplished.”

Chairman Stan Batemon said, “One of the key components for me—and I think that I speak for all of the commissioners on this—is that when you say county’s commitment to medical care, what it really means [in this agreement] is inmate medical care, and that bill is up around $600,000 a year right now. That is the key component of this. St. Vincent’s is working really hard to indentify the areas of inmate medical care that they can address which will stabilize the costs that we have. We wrestle with that every year. How do we budget for something that we haven’t got a clue what it will cost. If there’s a way that St. Vincent’s can help us stabilize that then it helps us a lot. It also helps stabilize those costs every year and over a period of time. I think that we’re really on the verge of causing that to happen and that’s exciting for all of us.”

Other issues approved at the meeting included:

* Approving to allow a single, countywide ambulance program that will provide better response time and services.

* Approve to give the county probate judge the go-ahead to enter into a contract with Gemini Consultants for software maintenance in the amount of $3,125 per quarter. The approval will give the judge some leeway to work out where he plans to go in the future with the probate office’s computer needs.

* Approve to authorize an application for public transportation funds and for the chairman to sign related documents.

* Approve a lease agreement with the Alabama Forestry Commission for space to erect a communication’s tower on Beaver Mountain, pending revue by the county attorney.

* Approve to award the bid for constructing a storage building for the Sheriff’s Department to Goodgame and Company in the amount of $88,632.

* Approve to hire a new personnel officer.

* Approve to set a public hearing for 10 a.m. on May 29 to hear public comments regarding the county’s application for 5311 transportation funds.