The awaited decision by the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners on whether to back the Wills Memorial Hospital Authority's bond issue for regeneration of the hospital will probably never come to a vote. But the answer will be forthcoming at tonight's (May 10) regular meeting of the Commission at 7 p.m. in the courthouse.

The issue may not come to a vote because there is apparently not a commissioner in favor of the hospital's request. Chairman Sam Moore, Donna Hardy, Divenski Lee, and John Howard have all expressed their objections. Commissioner Jerry Stover could not be reached for comment earlier this week.

Moore said he is concerned that there won't be a definitive answer because he doesn't expect there to be a motion made. So, he said, the only way they can issue a voted decision against the proposal is for a negative motion to be made - and he doesn't really like how that would look. However, the lack of any motion on the issue would indicate a unanimous vote not to back the Authority's proposal.

None of the commissioners polled was comfortable with obligating the county to a hospital debt. However, all agreed on the county's need for the hospital.

"My position has not changed from the start," Moore said. "I have no problem with the hospital Authority doing it [the regeneration], but I feel like they should be the ones that run the hospital and they should be the ones responsible for their debt.

"It comes right down to: they're the governing body of the hospital; we've got 30 departments to run in the county; we're supposed to run the county; and they're supposed to run the hospital," Moore continued. "When they get the business good enough, they can do whatever they want and they can do it in whatever chunk they want to do it. They should be able to do that without drawing us in."

Moore indicated that he felt a lot of the problems the hospital had in the 1990s was due to excessive involvement by the county. He said he thinks the hospital runs better without that involvement "but this just pulls us in it."

Hardy agreed, saying, "The hospital should be allowed to manage the hospital." She also said that in talking to her constituents, as many as 80 percent in some areas of her district don't want the county involved.

Besides, she said, "I believe in saving our debt for the Payroll Development Authority to use for economic development. We've got to have more businesses."

Hardy also pointed out that Wilkes County has one of the best credit ratings in the state of Georgia. "We are used as an example of the way a county should maintain its debt ratio," she said. "We want to keep it that way."

Howard's concern is that costs would exceed estimates because no detailed plans or schematics have yet been developed for the hospital's proposal. He, like Hardy, would prefer a phased approach.

"I'm not against the Hospital Authority," Howard said. "I'm just against what they want us to do. The reason is that I don't think we should obligate the county taxpayers to a 25-year debt basically giving the Hospital Authority carte blanche on spending and whatever they wanted to do leaving us to pick up the tab."

Moore agrees: "If they [the hospital] feel like 'Well, they've [the county] got our back,' then how responsible are they [the hospital] going to be?"

Lee is not convinced other alternatives have been fully explored and while he said he will go along with the other commissioners, he suggested another look.

"If there are alternatives that wouldn't put a burden on the taxpayers, I think we should look at that way," he said. "If they went that way and failed, then the county could step in and help at the actual point of need."

Lee said he knows the taxpayers wouldn't want the burden of a longterm debt. But, he said, "We definitely don't want the hospital to close down. The commissioners wouldn't let that happen. I feel like we would do what we had to do in order to keep the hospital, if that was the issue."

Some people seem to think that this issue means the hospital will close if the county refuses the requested backing. That is not the case. The hospital facility is in need of extensive repairs and "regeneration," as reported earlier in other news stories, is the best way to go. While the hospital is in the best shape it's been in for many years, the proposed project would cost in excess of $18 million and financing is required. County backing would speed a bond issue approach but is not the only alternative.