St. Clair County Commissioners vowed this week to keep a close eye on the budget after officially signing off on the $11.8 million bond issue for the county’s portion of the new St. Vincent’s St. Clair Hospital.

The bond issue went well, Matt Adams, a representaetive for Morgan Keegan Investments said.

With the county receiving a  “glowing review” and an AA- rating, it was able to go out into the market and secure a 3.68 percent interest rate for its investment.

The money the county and the Health Care Authority are putting into the hospital will be paid back through the lease of the new facility.

“We stepped out on a limb to go through with this process,” Commission Chairman Stan Batemon said. “This is one of those steps that allows us to cover these commitments we’ve made… This is scary, it’s scary for everybody.”

But when it’s all said and done, Batemon said the county will have a new hospital, a new V.A. home and “likely in the next administration, a nursing school for Jefferson State.”

The commission said the $300,000 interest payment due next August did not slip  out of the picture.

“It’s covered and it won’t require any funds out of the county’s budget,” Batemon said.

Commissioner Paul Manning said that the budget will remain “tight” for the remainder of the fiscal year and said he will ask that the county will closely review money in the coffers every three months.

“There’s no room for anything else and people need to know that,” Manning said. The county’s current $33 million budget was $2.5 million less than expected.

Manning has cautioned several times over the past month about shrinking revenues and the need to continue to be frugal in order to fund services to each of the county’s departments.

The county will also put in a one-third match for the City of Moody for the development of land for a Jack’s hamburger restaurant.

Batemon said that the one-third funding matches made to help bring businesses into the county “is really bringing in more than we put into it.”