Delta Dunklin Democrat
KENNETT -- Voters in Dunklin County will be asked Tuesday if they want to help keep a hospital with an emergency room in the county.
Proposition Health and Proposition Care need to pass with yes votes for the county to regain a hospital after the closing of Twin Rivers Medical Center in June.
"They took our hospital away from us," County Presiding Commissioner Don Collins told a group of residents in July at a town hall meeting.
"We've come up with a plan to give you a choice to get it back on August 7."
Proposition Health is a half-cent sales tax with a 30-year sunset that will build a new county-controlled hospital in Dunklin County. The new hospital will have an Emergency Room staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It will include jobs for up to 100 employees, a payroll projected at $5 million, cardiopulmonary care, lab, diagnostics and two surgery suites. Proposition Care is a 50-cent per $100 assessed value (not appraised value) property tax that will operate the hospital.
Both propositions must pass in order for the county to regain a hospital.
"We will be partnering with somebody to manage this facility," Collins said. "Either a regional hospital or a professional management company."