Local News – Wednesday, January 30th, 2019

The Salem Memorial District Hospital held a special meeting of the Board of Director and Finance Committee to discuss the SMDH facility expansion to include an in-house MRI. Bobby Sullins from Radiology reviewed the MRI’s from Canon, GE and Alliance. The Alliance presentation was for a used Canon machine. Both the Canon Titan MRI and the GE MRI are new machines and feature a minimum of 1.5 Tesla which is the unit of measurement quantifying the strength of a magnetic field, have a minimum of 16 channels, flex coils, large field of view, a large bore of 70-71 centimeters to reduce anxiety for claustrophobic folks and also be able to accept larger patients while most MRI’s have a bore of 55, has a quiet scan, offers a remote scan where a patient can be scanned from elsewhere, and also a smart scan that will be able to scan people with implants. Both MRI’s offer two weeks of basic training while the Canon Titan also offers two weeks of advanced training that has a value of about $90,000. This training will be “hands-on” at other locations that use the Canon software that will help those training become registered in MRI. The Canon offers a 90 day payment delay while the GE offers a 180 day payment delay. The hospital priced the MRI as a lease purchase for 60 months. The first year of the Canon would cost the hospital $28,834 per month and then would be $37,020 per month with the service agreement for years 2-5. The GE would cost $34,187 per month for the first year and would then go to $44,007 per month for years 2 through 5. The Finance committee recommended going with the Canon Titan and the board approved the recommendation. The hospital has a current contract with Alliance for the portable MRI service for another 18 months. They look to secure the price on the new Canon quickly and move forward with the hope of adding the new in-house MRI to the campus in the next nine to 12 months. The meeting was then adjourned.

Monday morning at the Dent County Courthouse, the Dent County Commissioners held the 2019 Dent County Budget hearing. The
General Revenue (GR) Fund ended 2018 with net cash available at 1.413 million dollars. The estimated revenues for 2019 were 1.572 million dollars while estimated expenses for this year are 1.799 million dollars, resulting in an estimated ending balance of over 1.186 million dollars as of December 31st, 2019. The Road and Bridge Fund ending cash balance in 2018 was $502,494.89, with estimated revenues in 2019 of 1.690 million dollars and estimated expenses of 1.952 million dollars which would result in an estimated ending balance of $240,125.09 at the end of 2019. Commissioner Skiles noted that the increase in revenues from the Road and Bridge Department sales tax will allow for an increase in chip and seal road maintenance. Commissioner Purcell and Larson hope to be able to do 18-20 miles of roads this year, but that will be determined by the bids they receive this spring based on the current cost of the oil and chips. Due to the backlog of needed chip and seal road maintenance, there will not be any new roads chip and sealed in 2019. The Assessment Fund ending balance for 2018 was $124,087.07, with estimated revenues of $195,400.00 for 2019 with estimated expenses of $241,794.50. This would result in an estimated ending balance at the end of 2019 of $77,692.57. The Law Enforcement Sales Tax (LEST) Fund ending balance in 2018 was $194,098.40. They estimate revenues in 2019 at 1.358 million dollars while the estimated deductions came in at 1.445 million dollars leaving an estimated ending balance of $107,595.47 at the end of 2019. There was some concern with the 9-1-1 fund as the revenues through landlines have continued to dwindle while the expenses to operate the system continue to rise. Commissioner Skiles said the county is supposed to be receiving additional funding this year through the sale of prepaid cell phones through retailers. The county would have to hold a county wide election to allow the people vote to include a surcharge on their cell phones for the 9-1-1 fund. He said the commissioners haven’t considered that yet, but some other counties are placing that measure on the ballot and Skiles stated the commissioners will monitor those results. Skiles also went over the new budgets for the Jail Construction and Operating Fund as well as the Jail Construction Trust Fund that are based upon a December opening of the jail. All the other smaller budgets were presented for questions, but there were none. The budget for 2019 was then approved by a 3-0 vote. The hearing was then adjourned.