Council approves $125M bond issue for ECRMC
EL CENTRO — The El Centro City Council’s authorization Tuesday of the sale of $125 million in bonds to fund El Centro Regional Medical Center facility improvements is being hailed as a momentous occasion that will greatly benefit Valley residents.
The council’s unanimous vote authorizing the sale of bonds is also expected to fund seismic retrofitting at the hospital that the state had mandated be completed by 2020.
“Every single dollar is going to be put into improving patient care in the Valley and expanding services to our residents,” said Mayor Cheryl Viegas-Walker.
The infusion of capital will help finance and refinance capital improvement projects such as the construction of an ancillary services building, renovation of the Women’s Center, relocation of the hospital’s laboratory and expansion of the emergency room.
The expansion of the hospital’s emergency department comes as especially welcome news, Viegas-Walker said, considering the large volume of patients it provides services for.
“There’s definitely a need in the Valley for expanded emergency room services,” she said.
The scheduled upgrades are expected to soon get underway, starting first with the groundbreaking for the two-story ancillary services building, which is expected to be open by 2020, said ECRMC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Adolphe Edward.
In addition, renovation to the hospital’s boiler plant, a one-story expansion of the emergency department and the relocation of the laboratory are scheduled to follow soon after.
The slated improvements are also expected to result in additional medical services by visiting University of California, San Diego physicians, and help meet locals’ growing demands for such services, Edward said.
“It will meet the needs of the patient population for the next 30 to 40 years,” he said. Calexico residents can also expect services to expand at ECRMC’s Calexico Outpatient Center in the near future, Edward said.
Edward was praised by various council members on Tuesday for his and his staff’s efforts in making the bond sale a reality. He in turn thanked the hospital’s board of trustees as well as city staff for their assistance.
“I took the input that I got from the city, and we were able to convert that to your vision,” Edward said.
In contrast to the typically time-consuming sale of bonds, ECRMC’s so-called “Series 2018 Bond” has already attracted the interest of one investor who has purchased all of the bonds with one check, Edward said.
Of the $125 million, $40 million will be used to pay down pre-existing bond debt that has tougher terms than the covenants of the $125 million bond sale, he said.
The Series 2018 Bond term is not to exceed 40 years and will have a maximum true interest cost of 7 percent and an estimated true interest cost of 6.34 percent. The sum total of all debt service payments, excluding certain finance charges not paid with bond proceeds, calculated to their final maturity is about $320 million, according to the council’s agenda backup documents.
Councilman Efrain Silva said Tuesday’s vote authorizing the $125 million bond sale definitely ranks as one of the more memorable and significant actions he’s taken during his 11 years on the council.
“There’s very few items that have monumental significance to our citizens,” Silva said.
ECRMC Board of Trustees President Joe Picazo Jr. also hailed Tuesday’s vote, as well as the hospital’s current administration, during the council meeting.
“It took a whole lot to put together a great team, but we’re there,” Picazo said.