Cookeville Regional beginning work to acquire a tax-exempt bond to fund the South Tower Project.
Board Chairman Danny Rader said if and when CRMC is ready to move forward with the South Tower Project, it will have to be financed through tax-exempt bonds. Rader said the project is still under design, which will determine if the hospital will be ready to follow through.
“We work with a company called RTG, and that helps us try to develop the cost of construction would be,” Rader said. “And so all of that preliminary work is important to know, number one, what it would cost, number two, what we need, and number three, how and when to do it. So that’s the kind of work we are doing now.”
Rader said CRMC does not have a ballpark number yet for how much the project will cost. However, Rader said the goal is to build something that will last.
“We want to invest in the community, we want to invest in the hospital, and we want it to be here 30,50, 100 years from now,” Rader said.
The board passed a resolution to include any money spent in the development process into the tax-exempt bond once a bond is acquired.
“Trying to figure out what a South Tower, or an emergency room, or an additional structure would look like, that’s costing money,” Rader said. “So as we spend that money right now, we are still financing that through operational cash. But if and when we issue a bond for the eventual construction, we want to be able to roll any of those expenses into that bond.”
The board unanimously approved the resolution.