By HEATHER CATHLEEN COX
Staff Writer
reporter@sbnewspaper.com
If many of the citizens of San Benito had their way, the forlorn building formerly known as Dolly Vinsant Memorial Hospital would be back up and running as a medical facility.
But Dolly Vinsant is presently owned by the following taxing entities, in the amount of back-owed taxes: the City of San Benito, Cameron County and the San Benito Consolidated Independent School District. While potential buyers for the property have previously made offers, the three taxing entities have yet to agree on one. All entities must agree before an offer can be accepted.
On November 6, at their regularly scheduled meeting, the San Benito City Commission made a motion to table an offer of $10,000 on the building, which was received by Southern Counties Investment Group LLC, at a courthouse auction earlier that day.
If all three taxing entities vote to approve the offer, the bidder will pay roughly $284,000, which includes back-owed taxes for 2010 and 2011 and the taxes owed for 2012. Of that amount, the city stands to see around $146,000.
Commissioners met in executive session on Tuesday to discuss the offer and ultimately decided to table it, pending the other taxing entities’ decisions. John Guevara of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson, tax attorneys for the city, said on Monday, “Right now, the bid is going to the county, and they are scheduled to meet on Thursday. I haven’t heard when the school district will meet.”
Some members of San Benito and its surrounding communities have voiced a concern for the building’s future. A group started by San Benito Rotary Club President Lionel Betancourt, better known as Save Dolly, has spent many hours in recent months trying to gain access to the hospital building to clean it up, as it currently sits in disrepair. Graffiti, debris and broken glass coat the once impressive facility, which opened its doors in 1949. The basement, built to hold standing water, is currently flooded.
Member of Save Dolly, Roy Maggard, said, “I would like to ask VA Senior Management Officials if they would like to purchase Dolly Vinsant Memorial Hospital and convert it into a polytrauma clinic for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, suffering multiple injuries that need rehabilitation. Perhaps the hospital can also be converted into a Burn Unit for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans whose vehicles drive over Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s).”
In addition to Maggard, other Save Dolly activists have made known the fact that they would like to see the establishment re-open as a medical facility. At this time, a prospective buyer is scheduled to look at the property, with intentions of opening it as a veteran’s hospital.
What Southern Counties currently wishes to do with the property remains to be seen. “The only information we’ve gotten is when they made their offer,” said Guevara. At that time, the group wrote a check but gave no indication what their future plans might be for Dolly.
The San Benito News hit the streets to ask every day citizens if they have an opinion on the building’s future, and for the most part, regardless of age or occupation, they were in all agreement.
Jose Casares of Lozano is a 42-year-old mechanic. Casares said, “I would like to see [Dolly] as a medical facility for the community. It would be better, for communities like Rio Hondo, Lozano and El Ranchito to not have to go all the way into Harlingen for medical (attention).” Casares added, “It would be much closer to come into San Benito.”
Housekeeper Delia Gonzales, 49, of San Benito said, “About two years ago, I thought it would be a nursing home. The only one (nursing home) we had they shut it down. Why don’t they put it as a nursing home?”
Gonzales’ 13-year-old daughter, Cristina Irene might be young, but she still feels passionately about the abandoned hospital. “I would like to see it as a hospital. We need one in San Benito. It’s closer,” she said. Cristina Irene continued, saying, “It would also help with the economy.”
Stimulating the economy is a reason some hold for wanting Dolly to reopen as a medical facility, while others have more personal reasons which are based in a lifetime spent in the city of San Benito.
“It would be good if it could be a hospital,” said housewife Maria Eva Conde, 67, because “my first daughter was born there.” Conde explained, “I lived here for three years, but I grew up here before that.” She paused and said, “It would be great if there was a hospital here again.”
Inocencia G. Bustamante, 76, of San Benito, said, “I would like for it to be a hospital. I was born here in San Benito. My mother, all of us went there for medical [care], to the hospital.” Bustamante reflected on many visits to the facility and the historical positioning the building possesses, but also spoke to the jobs which would be provided if such an establishment were to reopen here in town. She added that in its heyday, “My cousin worked there for many, many years.”
Read this story in the Nov. 14 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
1 comment
A community hospital that serves the poor and uninsured patient’s of Cameron County. I wonder why the Cameron County Commissioners are not pursuing a needed venture to serve the county’s indigent population.