The request of a $643,000 loan to purchase the Belhaven hospital was turned down Monday night by the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners.

The request came from Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal on behalf the newly formed Pungo Medical Center board, with additional statements from Dr. Charles Boyette, a longtime medical practitioner in eastern Beaufort and Hyde counties and 30-year mayor of the town that’s determined to reopen its hospital.

The meeting was held at the Washington High School Performing Arts Center in order to accommodate the approximately 140 Belhaven residents in attendance. Commissioner Hood Richardson made a motion to approve the loan — a no interest loan to be repaid in 10 equal installments on a yearly basis — but the motion failed when there was no second. Immediately, the crowd erupted with “boos,” exiting en masse with some yelled promises of retribution at the polls at the next commissioners’ election.

According to O’Neal, the loan would have been the first step of several steps the town of Belhaven and the PMC board are taking to reopen the hospital, which was closed on July 1, 2014 by Vidant Health. The $643,000 would be used to acquire the hospital property at fair market value through the town’s eminent domain efforts — once the deed has changed hands, the PMC board will use a $6 million loan to get the hospital back up and running, O’Neal said.

“Ninety-five percent of our community wants emergency services and a hospital. What we’re trying to do now is trying to put things back together,” O’Neal told commissioners.

Boyette described the Belhaven area to commissioners as economically deprived and underserved, as the loss of the hospital and its 130 jobs, have put some Belhaven businesses on the brink of survival.

“Help us open Pungo District Hospital as Pungo Medical Center,” Boyette said. “Commissioners, we can do better for our people. Let’s work together.”

After a 15-minute presentation, during which O’Neal asked for a show of hands of how many people supported a reopened hospital, and most in the audience responded, O’Neal asked if there were questions from the board.

Commissioner Ron Buzzeo asked about due diligence done with Frontier Hospitals, the hospital management group contracted to reopen and run the proposed new Belhaven hospital, in addition to the company’s references and financial statements. Board Chair Gary Brinn questioned how long the loan would be for, to which O’Neal responded repayment could come in three ways: Pantego Creek LLC, current deed holders for the hospital property, would “realize it’s fruitless, and give (the property) up;” by payout from the lawsuit filed against Vidant Health by the town and North Carolina NAACP; or through raised taxes on Belhaven property owners.

“You could get the money in one month, you could never have to give us the money or, at worst, $60,000 a year for the next 10 years,” O’Neal said.

Brinn said he wanted to see the paperwork on the USDA loan.

But it was the lack of paperwork made available to commissioners that prevented the vote from taking place, according to Buzzeo. Buzzeo said when he, Brinn and Commissioner Ed Booth met with O’Neal on Monday afternoon, it was the first he’d heard of the loan request, just hours before the commissioners’ meeting.

“As far as I was concerned there was a lack of information,” Buzzeo said. “I wanted some more information about Frontier and their background and their references.”

Buzzeo said the viability of a Belhaven hospital would be bolstered by facts and details supplied by O’Neal and the PMC Board, but the nationwide changes to the delivery of healthcare must be considered, as well: more and more, small, rural hospitals are being replaced with 24/7 clinics, surgery clinics and satellite doctors’ offices, along with paramedic-level service — all feeding into larger hospital systems.

Brinn said he knew the loan request was coming, but his requests for hard information also went unanswered.

“First of all, we had a meeting on Monday afternoon, before the (commissioners’) meeting and I said, ‘I want a paper stating the (Belhaven) city council is signing off on repaying the loan and I want the paperwork from USDA on the loan,’ and he just kind of blew it off,” Brinn said.

Brinn said lending and/or giving taxpayer money to any private entity is a questionable practice, at best.

“We just can’t do that. Even though I feel for Adam and the people of Belhaven, we’ve got to think about the taxpayers of Beaufort County, because that’s their money,” Brinn said. “If we said, ‘OK, we’re going to lend Belhaven that $643,000,’ every municipality in Beaufort County would be coming to us — if you do it for one, you have to do it for all.”

O’Neal said Monday night’s failure to come to a vote is indication of a lack of representation on the Board of Commissioners.

“When our elected officials forget who they represent we have a broken system,” O’Neal said. “They have proven to be no help to the Belhaven area community. We have been in front of them many times to ask them for things and they have turned us down all the time.”

O’Neal said there were other options to get funding for the property, but declined to name them.