SWAN QUARTER — On Tuesday night, the Hyde County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 against the Town of Belhaven’s request for a loan of $300,000 to help cover the costs of reacquisition of the hospital property in Belhaven.

Hyde County Manager Bill Rich said the commissioners did not feel comfortable giving out the loan without some sort of collateral guaranteeing repayment of the loan.

He said the county was told by the UNC School of Government that it may be illegal to loan money to Belhaven without first consulting the public with a local referendum, but the commissioners decided to withdraw a motion for the referendum and vote on the measure last night.

The new motion on which the commissioners voted gauged whether the board would support loaning the money, assuming this to be a legal transaction, Rich said.

“We just weren’t comfortable with it,” he said. “They hit us blind.”

Rich said Beaufort County Commissioner Hood Richardson did present a plan of repayment for the loan, but the Hyde County commissioners felt these plans were “speculative” and not secure enough.

The request for a loan from Hyde County was the next step in a yearlong process of the Town of Belhaven’s attempts to reopen its hospital. Vidant Health closed Vidant Pungo Hospital in July 2014, saying the establishment was losing millions of dollars each year.

Town officials have continued to fight for the hospital’s reopening, and most recently, have been trying to claim the property under eminent domain. The town was requesting a loan from Hyde County to help cover the cost of reacquisition. Earlier this year, the Town of Belhaven requested a loan from the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, but the request was denied, and the board decided not to hear another loan request for six months.

To move forward with reopening the hospital, the town is also in the process of securing a loan from the USDA’s Rural Development division, but to secure the loan, the town needs to provide proof of ownership of the hospital land as well as a certificate of need.

Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal, along with civil rights activist Bob Zellner and Commissioner Hood Richardson, began a 130-mile walk on Tuesday afternoon from Belhaven to the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh to petition the state government for the certificate of need, or an elimination or amendment to the certificate of need laws.

Eunice Williams, a Belhaven business owner and supporter of the effort to reopen the hospital, said she didn’t think the request to Hyde County would turn out in the hospital’s favor.

“I think it was an expected outcome,” she said. “I am disappointed because I am from Hyde County.”

Williams said she thinks Belhaven would have been awarded the loan if the issue had been voted on in the referendum.

“I still care a lot about these commissioners, and I just have to respect the outcome of how things go,” she said. “We won’t quit. Whatever it takes.”

The next step in the process is to support O’Neal on his walk to Raleigh and hope to obtain the certificate of need, Williams said.

While making his way through Beaufort County on Wednesday, O’Neal said he thinks Vidant had some sort of influence over the Hyde County commissioners.

“The certificate of need process has evolved into nothing more than for these hospital conglomerates to protect their monopolies,” he said. “The people are following the money. … It’s all about the money. It’s not about the people.”

O’Neal said he doesn’t think Vidant Health’s mission statement matches up with their refusal to reopen the hospital.

In closing the hospital, Vidant Health proposed a 24-hour multispecialty clinic with helicopter access be built to replace services. Vidant started construction on the facility in July and expects the facility to be complete by June of 2016, according to Christine Mackey, communications manager with Vidant Health. Mackey said, since 2013, Vidant has also invested $1.3 million in Beaufort and Hyde counties to upgrade emergency services and to address issues related to access to care, chronic disease prevention and management, nutrition and physical activity.

Williams said Gov. Pat McCrory told the Town of Belhaven that obtaining the certificate of need would not be a problem, but it hasn’t happened yet.

“We’re just trying to remind the governor that he promised support for this hospital,” she said. “We’re all praying.

“We’re committed to reopening this hospital.”