OKTIBBEHA COUNTY – With OCH Regional Medical Center’s $55 million sale to Baptist Memorial Health Care set to close by the end of the month, supervisors are considering ways to spend proceeds from the sale.
During the board’s regular meeting on Monday, District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer pitched his idea to split all of the proceeds evenly among the five districts.
“The reason being, I think we are all well aware of the needs here in Oktibbeha County,” Trainer told the board. “First of all, we don’t have enough – I don’t care how many proceeds we get – to address all the needs we have. But the bottom line of it is, we’ll be able to do something that, in my opinion, will be very substantial.”
Trainer said the plan would allow each supervisor to address the needs they see as most pressing in their districts.
“I think it would be good to just give the supervisors some flexibility to be creative and try to see how you can utilize those proceeds to make a difference in Oktibbeha County,” he said.
District 1 Supervisor Ben Carver countered Trainer’s pitch with an idea to split only $15 million of the proceeds between the districts, with the remainder going into an endowment.
Supervisors announced the hospital sale in August after approving the $55 million purchase agreement, though the hospital’s debt must be paid off the top, as well as other costs like attorney’s fees.
Board Attorney Rob Roberson said previous estimates for the county’s actual net proceeds were about $40 million, though the exact figure hasn’t been determined yet.
If Roberson’s estimate is right, using $15 million for general operations would leave about $25 million to put in an endowment.
The plan quickly gained support from District 5 Supervisor Joe Williams, who pushed to approve the plan Monday during the meeting.
“Keep in mind that we only have two years to work with, so we have to start making the plans in terms of what we’re going to do with the funds that we’re going to end up requiring to go into our districts,” Williams said. “We don’t have much time to plan, and we don’t have much time at all to help anybody.”
Carver, Board President Marvell Howard, who represents District 5, and District 4 Supervisor Pattie Little each advocated to hold off on deciding how to spend or save the proceeds, effectively ending the discussion. No action was taken.
While supportive of Trainer’s plan, Carver said it would be a mistake for the board not to save part of the proceeds, mentioning the trust fund Lowndes County supervisors established with proceeds from the sale of its county hospital.
Lowndes supervisors started their trust with $30 million the county received from selling its hospital to Baptist in 2006. Lowndes County Supervisors President Trip Hairston told The Dispatch that total will have grown to about $40 million by the end of Fiscal Year 2025, with the county having pulled just more than $10 million during that time for capital projects.
The county can withdraw up to 3% from the fund annually, as long as it sees growth. The withdrawals helped build the justice court, E-911 and health department buildings, as well as a multipurpose rodeo arena/county Extension office.
Supervisors are now turning that money toward paying down debt on its more than $12 million sportsplex off Highway 82 west of Columbus.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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