Almost 200 people crowded into the Borger Middle School auditorium Thursday night to hear Dr. Robert Corkern, dressed in a white lab coat with stethoscope, tell about turning around a bankrupt hospital in Batesville, Miss.

Borger is split on building a new $25 million hospital and financing it with a bond issue to be paid off by tax money.

While the two major civic groups battling on the fractious issue seem to agree the city needs a new hospital, the question is how much and who will pay for it.

Brandi Hannon, secretary of the Borger Betterment Committee, said she found Dr. Corkern and invited him to come to Borger.

"Our hospital facility is old," Hannon said.

Another Borger group, Invest In Yourself, has proposed building a new hospital.

"We want to explore other options," Hannon said.

She said she called a number of hospitals and management groups and finally talked to Ray Shoemaker, a hospital administrator and partner in Tri-Lakes Corp., a health-care management firm in Batesville, Miss.

"I called them because I heard they had a beautiful new facility," Hannon said.

She said she also heard that they had gone through the same problems Borger is facing with its health-care facility.

"The situation sounded so much like ours," Shoemaker said, "We wanted to come here and share our experiences with the people of Borger."

Corkern said Batesville faced similar bonding, emotional and financial issues as Borger. He said he’d like to help Borger navigate through those problems.

"We’re staying neutral," Corkern said. "We’re not taking sides. We’re here to discuss the issues."

Corkern said a hospital must be service-oriented.

"You have to provide service to people," he said. "If you keep that up, people will come. If not, you will fail."

Corkern recommended that the residents of Borger talk to their doctors about what the problems are at the hospital.

"A new building does absolutely nothing to fix the problem," Corkern said.

It only exacerbates the problem because of the additional debt, he said.

"I’m not saying not to build a new building," he added, "but you’ve got to fix the problems first."

He told the crowd at the Borger Middle School that the town needs a new building.

"This town is going to have to have a new hospital," Corkern said.

Norman Lambert, president and chief executive officer of Borger’s Golden Plains Community Hospital, said the original part of the hospital was built in 1937. The latest addition dates to 1968.

After meeting with Shoemaker, Corkern and Missy Hutto, a registered nurse and third partner in Tri-Lakes, Lambert said the trio told him the key to a successful hospital is getting doctors to support it, a message Corkern repeated Thursday.

Corkern was asked to run the Batesville hospital, he said, because he was the only one speaking to everybody when the city and county decided to sell it.

By the end of the first six months, the hospital was meeting its obligations, Corkern said. By the end of nine months, the hospital was paying some of its back obligations. By the end of the first year, Corkern said, the hospital was able to meet its $1.5 million bond obligation.

Borger resident Lee Dunham wanted to know whether Corkern was available to come to Borger.

"I would love the chance to come here and do what we did in Batesville," Corkern said. "This one isn’t going to last long."

Saying he didn’t object to a new hospital, Roy Haley asked whether Borger needed a $25 million hospital.

In its efforts to learn as much about civic center operations before the Batesville Center opens its doors, the Board of Aldermen heard from the director of the Forrest County Multi-purpose Building in Hattiesburg.

Chuck Bennett, who was in town as a favor to Rep. Warner McBride (D- Miss.), told city leaders some of the things they wanted to know and a few they didn’t.

Bennett first told the board that the decision to construct a civic center was a good one for the people of the city and the surrounding area.

"Whoever made this decision made a great one," he said. "Things that would never have come to Batesville will be looking at you as a serious option once the doors to this center open."

Bennett said it is highly unlikely that events at the center will be able to pay for the facility, adding that most facilities of this type have other funding sources in place.

"The center isn’t here to make money," he said. "The center is here to improve the quality of life for the people of Batesville, and, if it is handled right, it will do so."

Bennett said the big money generated by the center will be from the money spent in the community.

"You have no idea how much impact one event can have on a community," he said. "A small event can pull in hundreds of thousands of dollars for the community.

"That is the real financial benefit, and that is the reason you will have to accept the fact that the center is going to lose money," Bennett added.

Bennett said one very big thing the city has going for them right now is that the civic center isn’t opened.

"My advice to you is to sell everything that isn’t tied down to a sponsor," he said. "Make someone bid for the right to be the official soft drink, hot dog or beer.

"Those people will bid against each other to get the rights to be an exclusive vendor," he said. "By all means, use that to your advantage."