18-8-102. Prerequisites to appointment of board of trustees; indebtedness authorized for construction; annual tax levy for maintenance.

(a) When the board of county commissioners has received sufficient guaranties that not less than fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000.00) is available for constructing, acquiring or equipping a county hospital, wing or portion of a building suitable for operation of a county hospital so arranged as to be capable of future enlargement, or where a county has acquired a hospital valued at not less than twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000.00), it shall appoint a nonpartisan board of trustees of the hospital, none of which shall be a county commissioner or an employee of the county hospital.

(b) A county indebtedness may be created and county bonds authorized and issued for the construction, acquisition and equipment of the hospital in the manner then provided by law for the creation of indebtedness and the issuance of bonds for the construction of a courthouse and jail. When the hospital has been constructed or acquired and equipped the board of county commissioners shall annually levy a sufficient tax on all the taxable property in the county to provide for the maintenance of the hospital or wing or portion thereof. The tax shall be levied and collected as other county taxes and the amount collected shall be set apart as the county memorial hospital fund. No money shall be expended from the fund without the approval of the board of county commissioners.