Walker County commissioner Bebe Heiskell has signed a bond resolution that will help ensure the 850 employees at Hutcheson Medical Center will continue to have a place to work, she said.

“While this bond will serve as a short-term tax anticipation solution to Hutcheson's financial dilemma it will keep the hospital floating until a more permanent solution can be crafted,” Heiskell said Thursday during her weekly public meeting.

A restructuring of Hutcheson's total debt is expected to be tackled sometime next year, she said.

The $25 million tax anticipation bond will be used, in part, to pay off a high-interest $12 million debt to Medicare.

Representatives from Catoosa and Walker counties meet Wednesday to discuss the arrangement and agreed to sign off on the bond resolution Thursday.

“It is my understanding that Catoosa County was to sign off on the resolution this morning in their public meeting to be held at 9 a.m.,” Heiskell said Thursday.

The Medicare debt owed by Hutcheson is saddled with an 11-percent interest rate, while the tax anticipation bond will provide the hospital a 1-percent interest rate on the money.

The remaining proceeds from the bond will be used to pay off a portion of various medical vendors owed by the hospital and to replace some outdated medical equipment currently being used for patient care.

“The hospital continues to make wonderful gains toward financial solvency and I look forward to seeing it operate once again as one of the area's premiere medical facilities,” Heiskell said.