Utility plan for BCNH will cut costs

Earlier this year, some county officials, hearing that it would cost up to $50,000 per month to operate the boiler which serves both buildings, were concerned that the nursing home would become a drain on county finances once the hospital moves to a new location this summer. The finance committee had proposed a public opinion survey on the idea of selling the county-owned nursing home.

But the nursing home has a bid of $65,609 from Boiler Supply Companies to separate the nursing home's steam pipes from those of the hospital. A heating system and hot water heaters would be installed to allow the nursing home to operate on its own, without the massive boiler.

Some asbestos removal would also have to be done, at an estimated cost of $1,800, due to the work on the steam pipes. In addition, the nursing home will spend $7,825 for Southeastern Sound Inc. to separate the fire alarm system for the nursing home building from the hospital building's system.

The nursing home would pay for the project out of $60,000 in county bond funds -- money which was originally borrowed for nursing home improvements and which the nursing home has been repaying to the county since that time -- plus money from the nursing home's memorial fund.

Financial Management Committee members praised the plan and voted to recommend spending up to $100,000, as needed, on separation of services.

The changes may allow the county to continue to operate the nursing home as a not-for-profit entity, but they don't solve the county's other problem: what to do with the county-owned hospital building once it becomes vacant. Bedford County Medical Center will move this summer to its new location on U.S. 231 and will be re-named Heritage Medical Center.

The nursing home will continue to use the hospital building's kitchen for the time being. There had been talk of building a new kitchen for the nursing home, in case the hospital building was disposed of somehow and the county no longer had access to it. That may still happen eventually; the nursing home will develop a capital projects budget. But officials say they will wait and see how the transition goes before deciding whether a new kitchen is needed.

Committee member Joe Tillett said that when a vacant hospital building in McMinnville was offered for sale, there was not a single bidder. That building was much newer than the BCMC facility.

There has been some talk, including discussion at last week's courthouse and county property committee meeting, of building a new jail at the hospital / medical arts building site. Commissioner J.D. "Bo" Wilson predicted that the current economic hard times will lead to an increase in crime and hasten the need for a new jail, which has been talked about for several years. He said the county should look at plans so that it doesn't end up being forced into a project by federal court, as happened in the 1980s.