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Scott County residents were thrilled to learn their long-awaited new hospital would become a reality in 2008.

Donna Riser, hospital administrator for Lackey Memorial Hospital, called the official news in late 2007 of the new $22 million, 35-bed facility to be built south of Interstate 20 “a great Christmas present after a long journal of planning.”

The new two-story hospital, which will include a 65,000-square-foot senior care facility, will replace the 25-bed, 45,000-square-foot facility located on North Broad Street.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development division pledged to provide a chunk of the $22 million in funding required for the healthcare complex situated in rural east central Mississippi.

“Part of our duty is to provide rural communities with economic development help,” said USDA state director George Irvin. “One of our largest scopes of operation has been medical facilities. We just got an application for an $11 million project (to expand and update Natchez Regional) in Natchez, and we’ve worked on one recently in Batesville. The Forest project is not our largest, but it’s one of the premier projects because of the critical care component. It’s going to be one of few full critical care hospitals in the state, and that was unique and appealed to USDA.”

USDA Rural Development guidelines for funding healthcare facilities requires the applicant to be located in a rural area with a population of 20,000, and the public or non-profit organization must be unable to obtain necessary funding from traditional sources at reasonable rates and terms. Also, the service area of the public-use facility must have a median household income below $28,160, a figure that is adjusted annually.

Former USDA state director Nick Walters, who has consulted with Lackey on the project, said the demonstration of community support was an important element in attaining USDA funding.

Improving the quality of life in communities was another factor, said Bettye W. Oliver, programs director for the USDA Rural Development division.

Jackson-based Dean and Dean Associates architect firm will be involved in the project, which should have the final funding tally from USDA by the end of March.

“We’ll do everything we can to make this project successful,” pledged Irvin.
Lackey is also seeking GO Zone funding, and another financial institution has promised to make up the difference between money USDA will provide and what remains to cover project costs. The city has applied for Community Development Block Grant funds to help improve infrastructure at the site, such as sewer service and road access.

An optimistic timeline calls for construction to begin by late spring, Walters indicated.

“The good thing is that we’ve worked out a lot of issues that typically slows down the application process,” Walters told The Scott County Times, referring to environmental surveys of the site and a study of the impact Hurricane Katrina had on the current facility. “All of that has already been done. We just have to get it into document form.”

The current Lackey facility, built more than a half-century ago, will serve as a step-down arm of the new hospital when it is completed.

Recent healthcare facility projects in Mississippi funded by USDA Rural Development (loans or grants) include Kings Daughters Medical Center ($9 million), Progressive Family Services, Inc. in Canton ($5 million), Tallahatchie General Hospital in Charleston ($4.9 million), and Marion General Hospital in Columbia ($3.6 million).

Rural Development recently contributed funds to dozens of critical access hospitals including Choctaw County Medical Center in Ackerman, Hancock Medical Center in Bay St. Louis, Humphreys County Memorial Hospital in Belzoni, Leake County Memorial Hospital in Carthage, and Walthall County General Hospital in Tylertown.

“We did $355 million last year in Mississippi through USDA Rural Development, so my challenge to my staff is we want to top that by $5 million,” said Irvin. “We’re bringing the bacon home to the state.”



February 2008

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