Gov. Robert Bentley has awarded a $200,000 grant to help restore hospital services in Chilton County and provide 90 new jobs for the area.
The Community Development Block Grant will fund infrastructure for Chilton Hospital, a new $46.5 million, 30-bed facility being built in Clanton off Lay Dam Road near Interstate 65. The area has been without a hospital since Chilton County Medical Center closed in 2012. The nearest hospitals are in Prattville and Alabaster, each about 30 miles away.
St. Vincent’s Health System in Birmingham will operate and manage the hospital, which will have an emergency department and offer diagnostic and surgical services.
“Convenient access to medical care is important to any community, but it is especially critical for a growing area like Chilton County,” Bentley said. “I am delighted to support this project and the new jobs that will be created.”
The grant will help the city of Clanton extend public water service to the hospital site, a 40-acre plot west of I-65. The city is providing a $100,000 match for the project and is seeking additional funding to extend sewer services to the location.
After the medical center closed, Chilton County voters approved a temporary 1-cent sales tax to finance construction of a new hospital.
Bentley notified Mayor Billy Joe Driver that the grant had been approved.
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grant from funds made available to the state by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. ADECA administers a wide range of programs that support law enforcement, economic development, infrastructure upgrades, recreation, energy, water resources, job training and career development.
Contact Jim Plott or Larry Childers