The Lauderdale County Commission is ready to take a stand on where a proposed new hospital should be built.

“I’d like for us to go on record, some way, somehow, on how we stand on this hospital issue,” Commissioner Larry Irons said during a work session Monday.

Officials with RegionalCare Hospital Partners have said they are looking at two sites in Colbert County and one site in Lauderdale County as a possible location for a new medical facility. RegionalCare is the private firm that bought Coffee Health Group facilities, which includes Eliza Coffee Memorial and ECM East in Florence and Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals.

Lauderdale and Florence city officials have expressed concern over the Colbert sites.

“I am with you all the way on this,” Commissioner Rhea Fulmer told Irons. “I get my share of calls, and I’m stopped by people asking about this and concerned about this.”

The commissioners authorized county attorney Chris Smith to work with County Administrator Jeonice Bevis to draft a resolution reflecting the commission’s concerns. Bevis said the resolution would be ready to view at the commission’s Oct. 4 work session and ready to vote on by the Oct. 10 work session.

Fulmer said she took an impromptu poll on Facebook and 70-plus people who voted were opposed to the hospital being built anywhere except Lauderdale County.

Lauderdale officials said building a hospital in Colbert County would contradict the terms of the contract that was signed June 7, 2010, when RegionalCare took ownership of the Coffee Health Group facilities.

The contract stipulates RegionalCare “agrees to build a 300-bed replacement hospital on a site in Lauderdale County mutually acceptable to (RegionalCare) and Coffee Health Group within 3½ years after a certificate of need ... has been obtained.”

RegionalCare Hospital Partners has until the end of the year to attach a site for the new hospital on its certificate of need application.

“We need to do all we can to keep this hospital in this county,” Irons said.

Irons hinted the county might have to be involved legally to get the situation resolved.

“We need to have our county attorney ready on this issue if it comes to that,” Irons said.

“I want the hospital here, and I have several calls from people who feel the same way,” Commissioner Fay Parker said.

At its Sept. 1 meeting, the Coffee Health Group board unanimously voted to notify RegionalCare officials they should comply with the terms of the contract.

County Commission Chairman Dewey Mitchell, who is a member of the Coffee Health Group board, said no hospital is going to be built anywhere without the approval of the Certificate of Need Board in Montgomery. He said the site is a requirement of the application process.

“And local support (for the proposed site) is a critical part of that application,” Mitchell said.

A hospital has operated in Lauderdale County since the ECM facility was created in 1919, according to county officials.

Florence council members and Lauderdale County commissioners had to sign off on the purchase agreement to the Brentwood, Tenn.-based company because the two government entities have authority over Coffee Health Group.

Thornton said the loss of the hospital would be detrimental to the economy of Lauderdale County.

“It would cause an economic downfall if we lose the hospital,” he said. “I’m all in favor of a resolution showing our support for the hospital being here, where it should be.”

“I voted in good conscience (to sell the hospital to RegionalCare) that the new replacement hospital would be built here in Lauderdale County, and I stand ready to do whatever we need to do to see that it happens,” Irons said.

Tom Smith can be reached at 256-740-5757 or tom.smith@TimesDaily.com.