Commissioners vote 4-3 to offer Belhaven a chance to save Pungo Hospital | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

Would loan two million dollars to be repaid by a special hospital take in the region

    The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, meeting in a special called emergency meeting Friday (3-14-14) voted 4-3 to offer to the Belhaven area an opportunity to save their hospital.

    Vidant Health Systems, which recently acquired Pungo Hospital now proposes to close it April 1, or soon thereafter. The hospital real estate is owned by a private corporation. The proposal before the Commissioners was that a new corporation would take over Pungo and operate it. In order to do that, the board was told before the vote by Adam ONeal, Mayor of Belhaven, that they need three million dollars to keep the hospital operating after Vidant pulls out.

    The Commissioners approved a loan of two million dollars, subject to a deed of trust on the property in the County's favor as first lien holder, would be made on the condition that Belhaven and Hyde County would match to loan with one of a million dollars between the two governing bodies. The motion also included the condition that a special hospital district be created in the Belhaven/Pantego region with a special hospital tax to be asses subject to a vote of the people. The tax would be used to pay back the loans and possibly subsequently to supplement health care delivery in the future.

    Voting for the proposal to save the hospital were: Robert Belcher, Stan Deatherage, Gary Brinn and Hood Richardson. Voting in opposition were: Al Klemm, Jerry Langley, and Ed Booth.

    You can watch the board's actions in the video below:



    Following the vote, Adam O'Neal made the following comments to the Beaufort Observer.