Memorial Health’s Board of Trustees handled issues ranging from buried cables to multi-million dollar investment funds at Thursday night’s meeting.
While approving the installation of a buried bundle of wires may not seem as weighty as matters of hospital capital, officials explained that the project offers the facility a crucial level of safety.
The board approved a top end budget of $400,000 for the buried cable project, which will involve conduit with lines carrying everything from television signals to electricity. The cables will enter hospital property along Plum Street and run to the area of the new in-patient tower which is currently under construction on the east side of the campus.
Memorial CEO Chip Hubbs said the hospital hopes to get the cable work completed before the City of Marysville begins work on planned upgrades to Plum Street. Hubbs said the street work was slated to be done in 2018 but was pushed back to 2019.
Hubbs said the crucial aspect of the cabling work is that is will give the hospital redundancy in its power source. He said a recent buried line failure at the Marysville High School campus showed that having a second main line to the facility would be beneficial.
Hubbs said the second power cable could supply power to the facility in the instance of a failure to the hospital’s other line. This would allow the hospital to rely on power from on-site generators only as a last resort.
Memorial Chief Financial Officer Jeff Ehlers told the board that officials have recently revisited the health system’s investment policy for the first time in three years.
Ehlers said the Redtree Investment group of Cincinnati was selected to help the hospital with its excess public funds, which totals about $53 million. Redtree also works with local schools and the city of Marysville, Ehlers said.
Ehlers said Redtree officials have worked with Memorial to develop and investment strategy that will yield a return in the neighborhood of 2.25 percent. He explained that because of Ohio Revised Code Restrictions on the investment of public funds, much of the risks associated with investing have been prohibited.
Ehlers said Redtree’s fees equate to $3,600 per month.
In other business, the board:
-Approved a preliminary 2019 budget which needs to be submitted to the Union County Commissioners by Nov. 1.
-Learned that the Memorial 2020 fundraising campaign is about $150,000 away from its goal of $4 million. Officials will now target donors wishing to contribute smaller amounts as they attempt to reach the goal.
-Learned that submissions from Urbana sixth graders for Memorial’s holiday greeting card contest will be distributed to the trustees for voting in the coming weeks.
-Heard and update on the Memorial 2020 building project.