By Bill Grubb

ROGERSVILLE — Christmas is a month away but some Hawkins County Commissioners were not in a giving mood Monday.
    The county legislative body came up one vote short of the 11 votes needed to approve a change in the deed for the Hawkins County Memorial Hospital property that would have allowed Wellmont Health System to sell a parcel containing a medical office building, with Wellmont collecting all the funds generated by the sale.        Wellmont operates the hospital under the terms of a  lease agreement.
    According to the resolution presented at the commission meeting, in 1995 the county executed a quitclaim deed with Hawkins County Memorial Hospital for the 9.849 acre hospital site.  The deed contains a reversionary clause that states the property will revert back to the county in the event the property is sold or no longer used for a hospital.
    If approved, the resolution would have separated 1.7 acre parcel from the main hospital campus and would have removed the revisionary clause from the language of the new deed.  The parcel, which contains an office building, would have been located near the Locust Street entrance to the hospital site.
   Wellmont representative Bill Argabrite said the health care provider wanted to sell the building, which was built by Wellmont, to another company, identified in the commission resolution as G & E HealthcareREIT Mountain Empire, LLC.
    Argabrite said Wellmont would receive $2.5 million  for the sale and then planned to lease the same building back from the buyer, a move that would allow Wellmont to use the proceeds from the sale to make upgrades at the hospital.
    Commissioner Chris Jones suggested approving the change in the deed, which would pave the way for the sale, would not be in the best interest of the county.
    “We are giving property and not getting anything for it,” Jones suggested.
    Argabrite noted the revisionary clause “was a matter of public record” at the time Wellmont constructed the building and he suggested if the language in the deed is not amended the sale would not be feasible.
    “If this doesn’t pass I don’t think the purchase will go through,” he said.  
    The Wellmont representative suggested a financial institution would probably be reluctant to lend the money for a purchase of the parcel with language that could have the property revert back to the county.    
    “I don’t think the purchaser would be willing to make the investment either,” Argabrite said.
    Although the resolution received 10 “yes” votes and nine “no” votes, with one abstention and one commissioner absent, it did not receive the 11 votes required to constitute a majority of the 21-member commission.
    Commissioners voting to remove the deed language, which would have cleared the sale, were Virgil Mallett, Kenneth Long, Fred Montgomery, Boyd Goodson, Bill Henderson, Charlie Newton, Robert Palmer, Larry Frost, Dwight Carter and Stacy Vaughn. Hanes Cooper passed and Claude Parrott was absent.
   Although the courtroom lacked heat, because a boiler repair project was still underway, things did get a little heated during a discussion of a copier lease for the Juvenile Court office.
    Copier lease resolutions frequently draw more conversation and attention than large budget amendments, and Monday’s meeting was no exception.
     The resolution presented at the commission meeting asked commissioners to approve a 48-month lease with Hungate Business Services in Marion, Virginia, at $195.49 per month.
    According to the resolution, Evans Office Supply and Rogersville Office Supply did not provide a quote on the copier.
    During a November 17 Budget Committee meeting Martha Wallace, of the county mayor’s office, said Rogersville Office Supply had ultimately provided a quote a week after the quote deadline.  She also said the Rogersville Office Supply quote of $192.64 did not include a scanner capability that would increase the bid price to $273 per month.
    During the commission meeting Juvenile Judge James “Jay” Taylor said he would prefer to use local suppliers whenever possible, and he told commissioners he could wait another month to get a copier to allow commissioners to solicit new bids.
     Commissioner Shane Bailey suggested the recurring problem with copier leases is “a personal matter between the county mayor’s office and a local business.”
    The resolution to approve the copier lease only received eight “yes” votes.
    Following the meeting, Commissioner Danny Alvis said he believes Hawkins County officials should try to find a way to work with local businesses.
    “I don’t know why the county mayor and his secretaries have a problem with Rogersville Office Supply but they are a local company and they pay local taxes.  They have people who work there that live here and pay their taxes and I think we should deal with them whenever possible,” Alvis said.
    In other business the commission:      
    • Voted unanimously to reappoint Chris Christian as county coroner for a two-year term ending Oct. 25, 2010.
    • Voted unanimously to reappoint Jim Rogan to the Hawkins County Industrial Board for a six year term ending December 31, 2014.
    • Approved a violation fee schedule and guidance manual for the county’s stormwater program.
    Under the schedule a violation of the policy would include written warnings and administrative orders with penalties ranging from $150 per violation to $5,000.