OUR TURN: Scott & White: positive news for change

In the years to come, when the next volume of the Burnet County History is written, a future chronicler might note Sept. 15 as a milestone in the annals of the region, the day there was a glimmer that things just might get better.

That was the day scores of local dignitaries gathered at Lakeside Pavilion on the sun-kissed shores of Lake Marble Falls to hear executives from Temple-based Scott & White Healthcare confirm that a 60-bed, $120 million hospital complex would in fact be built in Marble Falls.

The message wasn’t new; in fact, it was a repeat of an earlier message, which also raised hopes that were only dashed later when a development deal fell through.

But what gave everyone in the room Sept. 15 such a feeling of anticipation — even a burst of renewed expectation — is that the message hadn’t been forgotten; that Scott & White, in spite of everything that has happened to derail the Lake of the Hills Regional Medical Center, was still going ahead with plans to bring 150-300 new jobs to the Highland Lakes.

That announcement doesn’t just open one door; it opens several.

The building of the hospital and a clinic could help jump-start construction companies and developers who have seen business slip painfully away every year since the recession began in 2007; it will help promote the acceleration of affordable housing, to accommodate the medical workers, clerks and service employees needed to keep a hospital running; and it could cement Marble Falls’ importance as a regional hub for goods and services, a shortstop for Hill Country residents who don’t want to drive to San Antonio, Austin or Waco for health needs.

This isn’t hyperbole. In fact, the will-they-or-won’t-they vibe of Scott & White’s dance with local government the last year about building here hasn’t been forgotten. But the message still promises much that, if all the details come to fruition, could help put the economically ailing Highland Lakes back on a solid footing.

Bob Sewell, a principal of the Johnson-Sewell Lincoln Ford Mercury dealership, knows a thing or two about weathering a downturn. This is how he feels about the Lake of the Hills Regional Medical Center:

"I firmly believe providing access to convenient, comprehensive health care is the biggest thing to happen to our area in the next 50 years," Sewell told the assemblage at Lakeside Pavilion. He’s chairman of the local steering committee generating community donations for the nonprofit medical center. "This Scott & White facility will provide the economic catalyst that will make our community the optimum place to live, work or play."

If he is willing to go on the record and say that, then it’s probably true.

The Flatrock Springs mixed-use commercial and retail development going in next door to the hospital could also be another blessing, especially if retailers bring more jobs and sales taxes — not to mention housing starts.

True, the hospital project has been hobbled by its share of difficulties, going all the way back to a lawsuit filed by Llano officials a few years ago to basically keep the Llano Memorial Healthcare System — now a part of Scott & White — from expanding into Marble Falls.

Even after that suit was settled, thanks to an agreement to keep Llano Memorial Hospital open, worse news followed when Scott & White terminated a contract with a Marble Falls developer in February, putting the fate of the hospital in limbo.

Yet behind the scenes, Scott & White and city officials worked to keep the dream alive.

The city of Marble Falls, which weathered much criticism over a decision to stick to the project even as Scott & White remained mum after the deal fell through, continued extending utility lines to the project site at Texas 71 and U.S. 281, as well as built a 1-million gallon water tank.

And let’s not forget the recession; most cities don’t expand in times when sales taxes are falling and property tax collections have fallen short. Much credit goes to the two councils under mayors Raymond Whitman and George Russell, who saw the project through, as well as the Economic Development Corp., which gave the city $1 million to ensure the construction didn’t lag.

These are the infrastructure needs that Scott & White had to have in place before coming to the Highland Lakes.

And this is where the project stands. There have been a lot of words, a lot of documents and a lot of promises. But if the hospital continues to go forward, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t, a future historian looking back may say it was exactly the right prescription to cure the Highland Lakes’ economic ills.