Hot Springs to discuss assisting Hospital District
The Eastern Sanders County Hospital District is bound and determined to raise funds in order to expand and update the current Hot Springs clinic.
The Eastern Sanders County Hospital District is bound and determined to raise funds in order to expand and update the current Hot Springs clinic. They turned to the town of Hot Springs for assistance at a public meeting held Thursday night.
The hospital district is asking for the town of Hot Springs to sponsor the application for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) of $450,000 in order to continue on with their current project of rebuilding and expanding the existing deteriorating building. The Hospital District can not go through the county to apply for a CDBG grant as a county is only allowed to apply for one project per year and Sanders County has recently applied for a CDBG grant to institute a sewer system in Paradise.
Therefore, the hospital district turned to the Hot Springs town council to ask for their support in this effort and apply for the grant. If awarded, the grant money would then be turned over to the nonprofit hospital district.
The Sanders County Community Development group would write the grant and the town of Hot Springs would have to commit to sponsoring the grant this week as it has to be postmarked by Friday, May 21 in order for the town to be eligible.
"USDA Rural Development is cheap money over a long period of time, so the purpose is to go after as many types of funds as possible and see what falls out and then collectively determine what is most advantageous to go after and we will go after anything we can," said Billie Lee, Executive Director for Lake County Community Development, which oversees community development projects in Sanders, Lake and Lincoln Counties.
According to the grant requirements, the town has to authorize the submission of the application and state that they will sponsor and agree to the guidelines and standards outlined by the grant.
"The town has legal jurisdiction and authority to finance, operate and maintain the facility, but it will be turned over to a nonprofit organization and it does not obligate the town to come up with any additional money relative to this," said Lee.
The Hot Springs clinic located on Main Street has a deteriorating foundation and plumbing, poor insulation, tight quarters and overflowing file cabinets according to a member of the hospital district, Ray Flesch.
"The building is a disaster. It has been there for 40 years and the rooms are too small, it is not a good handicap facility and the restrooms and x-ray rooms need to be changed. We have outgrown this one, and it's falling down. We don't want to increase mill levies, but we want to make this work," said Flesch.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenia Tribes have given the hospital district a lease for the property adjacent to the current clinic, which will allow adequate space for a larger facility.
The new clinic would be approximately 4,000 square feet. In addition to paying for tearing down the old building and supplying the new clinic, the CDBG grant would also pay for new equipment and furniture to fill the new space.
The Hot Springs town council is set to meet Wednesday, May 19 at 6:00 p.m. to discuss sponsoring the grant.