By Tara DeRock Mahoney
Senior Staff Writer

Members of the Morgan Hospital Authority recognized the group’s Auxiliary Board at their regular meeting last Thursday, thanking them for the $40,000 raised for the hospital by the annual Festival of Friends on August 16.
   

“I think they deserve a round of applause,” said authority chairman Terry Evans. The group was represented at the meeting by event chairperson Mary Lawton.
   

“We want to recognize the auxiliary as a group and you personally, Mary,” said Evans.
   

About 250 people participated in a silent auction and had dinner at a number of local private homes in aid of the hospital. A pre-dinner cocktail party was sponsored by one hundred percent of the local physicians.
   

“We’re grateful to everybody,” said Megan Morris, director of Development and Public Relations for the hospital.
   

In other business, hospital finance director Darlena Kinnett presented preliminary end-of-year numbers for the hospital, noting that the hospital had ended the year with a positive net income.
   

“Nine of the those 12 months, [the positive net income] was without the county subsidy taken into account,” said Kinnett. The hospital also increased its cash-on-hand from $128,000 to $394,000 last year, an indicator of its strengthening financial positiion.
   

“It tells us we’re booking our allowances appropriately and keeping our ratios in line,” said Kinnett.
   

The hospital also reported that the state has rescinded a large grant that it had awarded the hospital earlier in the year, apparently because of changes in direction at the state Department of Community Health (DCH).
   

Board member and former authority treasurer John Milliken said that he had called Dana Greer at  DCH to find out what had happened to the grant.
   

“I extracted a personal promise from her that she would call personally for [future grant opportunities],” said Milliken.
   

“We’ll continue to plug away,” said hospital CEO H.D. Cannington.
   

“I want to commend H.D. and his team for going after these grants,” said authority member Sarah Burbach. “These grants— they’re not fun to write, and they’re not easy to get.”