Allen County commissioners announced Friday morning trustees for the new Allen County Hospital. Appointments will become official Tuesday when commissioners approve a resolution establishing the board of trustees.
Trustees will be Harry Lee, LaHarpe, Dr. Sean McReynolds, Humboldt, Patti Boyd, rural Moran, and Debbie Roe, Tom Miller, Karen Gilpin and Jay Kretzmeier, all of Iola.
Lee, a former USD 257 board member, is owner of LaHarpe Telephone Co. and had command experience in the Kansas National Guard. McReynolds has a dental practice in Humboldt. Boyd, an attorney, is president of the USD 258 (Moran-Elsmore) Board of Education.
Roe is financial officer at Monarch Cement Co. in Humboldt. Gilpin is a registered nurse and has a background in management within the profession. Kretzmeier is an accountant and a partner in the Iola firm of Kretzmeier, McCammon and St. Clair. Miller is a commercial businessman.
“These were the seven we asked and all accepted,” without reservations, said Commissioner Dick Works.
“They all have impeccable integrity and all expressed great interest from the time they were first contacted,” said Commission Chairman Gary McIntosh. “We told them at the start they were facing a lot of hard work. We didn’t soft-soap it at all and they’re all eager to help out.”
He noted the trustees direct construction and management of the new hospital autonomously, and that commissioners would remain in the background, trusting the judgement of the trustees.
“They’re very good people with varied backgrounds, exactly what we wanted,” said Commissioner Rob Francis.
“We want to get right after a new hospital, but we also want to get it all right,” McIntosh added, and that the trustees shared the commissioners’ enthusiasm.
Commissioners also approved hiring Mark Thompson, a Kansas City attorney with experience in hospital construction, to look after legal matters during the construction phase, which is expected to run into 2013.
OVERWHELMING approval of a countywide quarter-cent sales tax, financial trigger for the hospital project, also means that Chuck Wells, Healthcare Financial Advisors, Inc., Kansas City, will be paid $100,000 to work out precise details of bond financing for the new hospital’s construction and equipping. He initially was paid $15,000 to advise commissioners on how a new hospital might be financed and to assist the Hospital Facilities Commission in its reviews and discussions that led to the members’ recommendation to build a new hospital.
McIntosh spent several hours in Neodesha Thursday with Deanna Pittman, chief executive officer of Wilson County Medical Center, to gather information about construction of that hospital, which opened as a 16-bed critical access facility in February 2008.
She lauded the assistance Wells provided the Neodesha hospital and also encouraged Allen County commissioners not to tarry in ramping up efforts to attract private financial support through a foundation.
COMMISSIONERS also canvassed provisional ballots from Tuesday’s election, those mainly that had questions about a voter’s registration. Also counted were some that were excluded from computerized tabulation Tuesday night because they were photocopied when previously printed ballots ran short.
The additional votes changed no outcomes, but did add to the totals in the two referendums.
The quarter-cent sales tax for healthcare ended with 3,322 yes votes and 1,271 no, a difference of 2,051. The referendum to decide a charter ordinance and determine the size of Iola’s governing body ended with 988 no votes, which means eight councilmen and a mayor will be elected in April, and 757 yes votes, which would have led to four commissioners and a mayor.
