BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – The Sullivan County Commission is poised to endorse King College’s proposed medical school despite concerns about the project voiced by East Tennessee State University officials earlier this week.
On Thursday, the commission’s budget committee unanimously approved a resolution encouraging King College to move forward with its medical school plans.
“Personally, I support this proposal and I think it is right for the community,” Commissioner Joe Herron of Kingsport said at Thursday’s meeting.
King College officials claim the $150 million medical school could generate millions of dollars in new money for the region and help address a growing need for new doctors. The project has already been endorsed by the Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the Bristol Tennessee City Council, though neither endorsement commits its respective governing body to funding the project.
“This is basically an encouraging resolution,” County Mayor Steve Godsey said of the proposal coming before the commission. “There is no monetary commitment.”
The budget committee’s vote comes on the heels of a recent news conference in which ETSU officials said the proposed school could cut the amount of funding their Quillen College of Medicine receives.
Speaking at a Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen work session Monday and again at the Wednesday news conference held on their campus, the ETSU officials also said the school would over-supply the region with physicians and other medical specialists.
On Thursday, County Commissioner Dennis Houser of Blountville said many area residents must wait at least three months to get an appointment with a doctor.
“You go to Bristol and tell me there’s no shortage of neurosurgeons or specialists,” Houser said.
The eight-member Sullivan County budget committee is the second standing committee on the county commission to unanimously support the medical school resolution. The commission’s administrative committee voted in favor of the plan Monday.
However, the commission’s executive committee deferred the resolution at its July 1 meeting. While many of its members support the plan, they also were worried it might commit them to funding the project.
The resolution will come before the full county commission for its first reading July 20. Commissioners aren’t scheduled to officially vote on the proposal, though, until August when it comes before the commission for its second and final reading.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, budget committee members approved a resolution that would sell an extra five acres of land in the Tri-County Industrial Park to Graceway Pharmaceuticals for $38,500.
Godsey said the company plans to use the extra land to expand its operations. The county owns 62.5 percent of the land inside the Tri-County Industrial Park, he said.
That resolution also is slated to come before the county commission for its first reading July 20 and a second reading in August.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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