Keeping the Lakeland Community Hospital open has been the main objective of both the City of Haleyville and Winston County. In order to fund the hospital the City passed a one-cent sales tax and on Monday, February 26, the Winston County Commission voted to impose an additional 2-mill ad valorem tax on property owners in the county. This is actually a reinstatement of a tax for the hospital which was in place when it was a county-owned hospital before the purchase by Caraway. The original tax was for 4 mills.

One mill of the tax will go directly to the Haleyville and Winston County Hospital Authority Board, which will be used to keep the hospital open and operational. The other half or 1 mill will be used for health-related purposes throughout Winston County. The tax is contingent on the purchase and the viable operation of the hospital. The vote for the tax was 2-1 with County Commissioner Bobby Everett voting no. Everett explained he thought the people of the county should be given an opportunity to vote on the tax. According to Commissioner David Cummings, the tax had to be imposed by the end of February in order to be collected on this year. The short notification of intent to close last November accelerated the work to fund and purchase the hospital by the newly formed Hospital Board.

The actual transfer of the hospital ownership and operation has not yet occurred, but an email from the United States Department of Agriculture, which holds a loan to the non-profit company which owns it, has given an approval to proceed with the transfer of ownership to the Board.

Haleyville Mayor Ken Sunseri stated there is is a lot of work to do to in terms of getting a management agreement in place and other details. A formal announcement will hopefully be made soon.