(Riverton, WY) – The Riverton City Council voted Tuesday to grant $325,000 in economic development sales tax funding to the Riverton Medical District – more than the organization asked for.
The RMD had requested $250,000 to help cover inflationary costs associated with the construction of a new hospital north of town, according to the agenda for the meeting.
But this week Councilmember Kristy Salisbury made a motion to increase the allocation, citing “the time, the effort (and) the money that this group has put in” to develop a project that is “unique from all of our other projects that we’ve funded before.”
The future hospital is projected to employ about 140 people once it’s fully operational, RMD Board Chair Corte McGuffey said Tuesday, and the construction portion of the project is estimated to create about 100 jobs.
“Even though we have gotten close to about $1.3 million of this half-cent money through the city and the county, our amount per job is far less than anybody else’s by far,” he said. “So I feel like it’s a good investment.”
Mayor Tim Hancock agreed that the hospital project was worthy of funding, but he wondered whether the council should wait to consider the RMD request Nov. 19 along with the other economic development funding applications that were submitted this round.
“That is a possibility,” McGuffey said – but he also explained that RMD would like to install rammed aggregate piers at the hospital site “before the weather gets too bad,” and the USDA, which loaned $37 million to the project, is waiting for the group to “tie up these last few things before they give us a letter to proceed,” so “the sooner that we can secure these funds, the better.”
“I know all these other projects (are) very worthy of funding,” McGuffey said. “But … the economic impact (the hospital) is going to provide for our community is pretty amazing.”
Six entities requested a total of $674,650 in economic development funding this round, and the Riverton EDGE Committee recommended awarding a combined total of $232,687 to five of those organizations, according to a memo from city staff.
The city’s economic development fund currently holds about $327,000, staff said in the memo, and it’s expected to accrue about $280,000 more through the end of the year – meaning there should be “enough to cover” the EDGE Committee recommendation for those other projects at a later date, Hancock said.
He noted, however, that if the half percent sales tax option that funds the city’s economic development program fails this week – which it did – the city may need to consider allocating more of that money to support commercial air service at Central Wyoming Regional Airport.
“That kind of changes things,” he said.
The RMD is also requesting $300,000 from Fremont County’s portion of half percent sales tax revenues, and they recently received a $250,000 donation from Wyoming Community Bank, McGuffey said.
Their goal is to raise $1 million to fund a deficit in their project budget that is currently being covered by a pledge from a local entity.
For more information about the RMD call (307) 840-9503 or email rivertonmedicaldistrict@gmail.com.