Meador says council seeking ‘alternative solutions’ for hospital

Demoplis City Council member Bill Meador stated that the city is working on “some alternative solutions for the hospital” at the end of Thursday evening’s council meeting at Rooster Hall.

Meador did not specifically refer to a hospital board request for $68,000 in emergency funding to keep the hospital’s Labor and Delivery unit open for an additional 60 days, during which time a community task force will seek possible ways to keep the unit open long term.

“I’ll leave it at that,” Meador added to his initial statement.

Mayor Mike Grayson then clarified that Meador was speaking about the L&D situation, to which Meador replied, “If you want to say that.”

The L&D unit has been slated for closure for financial reasons based on recent hospital board action, but an outcry from the public led to the request for the city and/or county to produce the $68,000 infusion. The council took no action on the hospital request, but held an hour-long executive session earlier in the meeting to discuss financial matters. The council did not state specifically if the discussion centered on the hospital request.

Prior to the executive session, the council voted to make its meeting minutes “sortable” by switching software to a PDF format. Council member Charles Jones, who has researched the possibility in recent weeks with the assistance of Demopolis City Schools IT coordinator Jeremiah Dial, said the necessary software is free.
Dial has agreed to assist in the process, which will ultimately allow faster searches of past council meeting minutes and better public access to the minutes.
The council held off on buying individual tablets for council members’ use during meetings. The tablets would cost $320 each.

In other action, the council approved re-zoning the  property at 502 N. Front Ave. from I-2 to R-3, which will allow a mobile home at the site, approved a Severe Weather Preparedness Tax Holiday for Feb. 21-23, and accepted the low bid from Rice Heating and Cooling to prepare a self-contained area at the former New Era building for use by the University of West Alabama. The Rice bid was $20,599.
Grayson made several announcements, including a Demopolis CATV rate increase from $49 to $51 on March 1, the opening of a new vehicle dealership, Townsend Ford, in Demopolis, and the recent arrival of a new physician, Dr. Tiffany Ward.
The mayor also told the council that Col. Hugh McCall of the Department of Public Safety sent a letter thanking the city for assistance from several Demopolis Police Department officers at the Footwash in Hale County in September. McCall’s letter said the officers were “valuable members of our team who displayed professionalism at all times.”