Haywood County School System Claims the Former Hospital Property

The Haywood County School System has officially accepted the former Haywood Park Community Hospital property, through a donation from the corporate owner, to Vision Haywood County.   

At a recent school board meeting, TLM Associates presented a proposal to access the current condition of the main building prior to Haywood County Schools taking any decisive action with the facility.  

The current vision for this property is to create a multi-purpose higher education center for Haywood County.  The center would support purposes such as the training needs of our current industry in the community as well as future industry with the proposed Memphis Regional Mega-Site. Housing partnerships with TCAT, community colleges and other higher education programs would be part of the plan as well.  This facility would remove a barrier for attending postsecondary school for a number of Haywood County residents.  This is all about expanding educational opportunities in our community to grow the workforce.  Education equals jobs; jobs equal education.   

In regards to funding, the school system plans to explore partners across the region, state and nation.  They plan to complete necessary renovations through various funding streams.  It will require local, state and federal partnerships to get this project to it’s intended purpose and will be a multi-year process.  Essentially the building would serve as a shared common space for all the entities involved in the cooperative to improve and grow the local workforce. 

In speaking about the property, Superintendent Joey Hassell said, “ The immediate undertaking will be the grounds upkeep, utilities and adding the property to the insurance.  This is much larger than K-12, it’s about the community. It will benefit our industry needs right now.  To train vocation for our own community needs will be a strong viable option for us”.

Michael Banks attended to school board meeting on this matter and stated, “Even at the state level as they show the Mega-Site that we have this facility to basically build a workforce development center will be a positive thing.  To see that Haywood County has already taken that step to improve the workforce could have a tremendous impact”.

This is an exciting time for Haywood County.  Great strives are being made.