By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette
During the Oct. 23 meeting of the Guthrie County Hospital Board of Trustees, an audit report from the firm of Eide Bailly was summarized by Brian Green.
“Your bottom line, operating, for all the years I went back and looked, it said, ‘Operating Loss’ but this year it says, ‘Operating Income,’ so pretty exciting for you guys,” Green said. “We went from a $1 million loss two years ago, $500,000 loss a year ago, and $720,000 gain this year.”
Green said total assets show just under $35 million.
“Two years ago, it was less than $30 million, so we’ve seen a growth in assets of over $5 million in those three years,” he said.
“Finally, if I didn’t show you anything else, this graph looks at your equity as an organization. You can see from 2015 to 2018, really kind of a plateau. And from 2018, it’s kind of been a straight upward and to the right, so the building of your equity from $7 million to $25 million currently,” Green said. “That’s a very positive sign.”
Regarding the timeline for the planned expansion project, Chief Operations Officer Travis Martin reported on a likely delay caused by the government shutdown.
“One of the milestones was that bids will be released on Nov. 5. I don’t anticipate that happening, because USDA has to give the blessing, and, currently, the USDA is on furlough,” he said. “Nothing we can really do without USDA being in the office.”
CEO Chris Stipe reported that a few trees were taken down on the hospital campus. He said some were related to the expansion project.
Martin discussed the need for a temporary parking lot and sidewalk.
“Graham Construction, as part of the project, has always intended to have a temporary parking lot south of the helipad between the house that we just bought and the helipad. That parking lot will be for the mobile trailer that will be the primary health clinic,” Martin said. “Graham has recommended that we try to get that done before the freeze, because part of that is sewer and a water line.”
Martin said the expected cost would be $108,000.
“Around $60,000 of that is the parking lot; the rest is the utilities,” Martin said.
The trustees approved the additional work as described.
The board went into a special closed session to discuss a matter related to the purchase or sale of real estate.
Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the next regular meeting of the trustees is set for Monday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. The public is welcome.