The Town of Belhaven approved a series of tax increases Monday night at a town council meeting at Belhaven Civic Center.

Residents can expect to see a 4-cent increase of the property tax rate, a 15-percent increase in garbage collection fees, a 10-percent increase in water rates and an 8-percent increase in sewer rates.

Mayor Adam O’Neal said the increases were put in place to help account for the expenses resulting from Vidant Pungo Hospital’s closure in July 2014 and the town’s subsequent attempts to reopen the facility.

The hospital closed after Vidant Health cited losses of $2.5 million each year, and the company decided to move forward with plans to open a 24-hour clinic in place of the hospital.

Town officials opposed the hospital’s closing and the plans for a clinic because they feared it would lead to economic woes and sub-par medical care.

Officials have continued to use town funds for the fight to reopen the hospital while also trying to manage the deficits from its closing.

O’Neal said he estimates the economic impact from the loss of the hospital to be approximately $17 million a year.

“These increases are due to shared costs going up,” O’Neal said. “All these things are dominoes of what happens.”

According to the budget worksheet for fiscal year 2015 to 2016, the increase in the property tax rate is expected to bring the town another $50,000 in revenue while the increases in water and sewer rates are expected to generate almost another $100,000 combined.

At the meeting O’Neal vehemently blamed Vidant Health and Pantego Creek, LLC for the town’s economic misfortunes, repeatedly referring to the four LLC partners by name.

Tensions rose as Belhaven resident Jean Corbett was asked to leave the meeting for willful disruption when she spoke up in defense of one of the partners, a request that angered several of the other residents attending.

Retired veteran and Belhaven resident Malcolm Waddy said he chose to move to the town because of its hospital, but he can still see both sides of the argument. Since moving to Belhaven, Waddy said he has noticed how the issue has divided the town and led to contention between residents.

“It’s caused a lot of grief in town,” he said.

Waddy said he thinks a 24-hour multispecialty clinic would be better than nothing, but he doesn’t think it’s a solution to the problem.

O’Neal ended the meeting by disputing the claims made by on a flyer sent to Belhaven residents by BCPAC, Inc. that has since circulated throughout town, claiming state auditors were sent to Belhaven because of numerous fiscal violations and issues with unpaid utility bills. O’Neal said state auditors were not brought in because of violations and the numbers for unpaid utility bills were taken out of context.

“What we have is political mudsling,” he said. “The people of Belhaven have to understand we are at an unusual time in the history of our town.”