Beaufort County commissioners may vote to dissolve the Beaufort County Hospital Authority Board at tonight’s meeting.

The regularly scheduled meeting is usually held on the first Monday of the month but was postponed a day due to the holiday weekend. The Board will meet at 5 p.m.

Among the items listed for decision on the county agenda is the dissolution of the Beaufort County Hospital Authority Board.

The hospital authority board was created when Vidant Health, then University Health Systems, took over the lease for Beaufort County Hospital in 2011. At the time, a trust fund using county money was created to buffer the county from any outstanding liabilities. The trust fund, overseen by the hospital authority board, started at $6.8 million and now totals approximately $6.5 million. The board was able to negotiate its one known liability — a $22.5 million Medicare settlement — down to less than $400,000, according to board members.

Hospital Authority Board member Suzanne Gray reported on the board’s standing at the commissioners’ June meeting, at the same time advocating to keep the board in place as there may be liabilities from the past that have yet to be revealed. The other reasoning for keeping the hospital board intact is a concern that Vidant could, at some future point, move out of Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

“Beaufort Hospital (Authority) Board members unanimously agree the $6.5 million dollars on hand should be placed in a trust to cover startup expenses should Vidant abandon their lease,” Commissioner Hood Richardson wrote in a press release. Richardson sits on the Beaufort County Hospital Authority Board.

In the press release, Richardson said the $6.5 million trust fund, combined with what he believes will be an $11 million unencumbered surplus in the county general fund at the end of the year, will open the door to the loan-free construction of a new jail, which he opposes. But according to other officials, should the hospital board be dissolved and the county assume control of the trust fund, the money would only be used for healthcare-related items, like countywide paramedic-level service.

Also slated for discussion are several grant opportunities: a Vidant Foundation grant for EMS; a building re-use grant; and an economic development grant.

A public hearing for the Pamlico Sound Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan will be held at 5:30 p.m., before commissioners vote on its adoption. According to Beaufort County Emergency Management Coordinator John Pack, the five-county Pamlico Sound plan is no different than a previous Beaufort County plan, other than it incorporates the plans of five counties (Beaufort, Craven, Pamlico, Carteret and Hyde) in one document, as now required by FEMA for funding.