Hospital applies for PPP round 2

Last week Melissa Memorial Hospital applied for a second round of funds from the Paycheck Protection Program, and the East Phillips County Hospital District Board of Directors gave their approval at a special meeting Thursday, Feb. 18.

The idea behind PPP is to provide loans to help businesses keep their workforce employed during the COVID-19 crisis.

MMH plans to use the nearly $1.5 million loan to pay salaries, just like it did with its first PPP loan.

In regard to the first loan, MMH has the paperwork ready to go that will ask for the loan to be forgiven. It’s unclear whether or not interest will need to be paid on the loan.

While at the meeting, board members briefly discussed the Holyoke Community Childcare Initiative’s proposed day care facility to be built north of MMH.

Board member Mike Woodhead said that there’s a concern about the cost of the facility. One way to trim off close to $1.5 million, he said, would be to eliminate the portion of the building that was originally intended to be rented by MMH for some sort of medical clinic.

“If you take that out of the equation, the price tag comes down a lot,” he said, noting that they need to focus on the main goal, which was to build a child care facility.

With this in mind, MMH CEO Cathy Harshbarger said she would share the board’s discussion at the next meeting of HCCI.