Troup County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe was approached three years ago about plans for a South Tower at West Georgia Medical Center.

Hospital President Jerry Fulks and board members John McKibben, Nasor Mansour III and Bobby Carmichael asked Wolfe if the county might help guarantee bonds for the $70 million project, substanitally reducing financing costs.

“I thought it was a very noble idea and the timing could not be worse,” Wolfe told an estimated 400 people at the South Tower’s grand opening celebration Friday.

“The economy was beginning to tank and I figured the odds of this happening were pretty nil.”

Wolfe didn’t think the bond issue would fly, but with the county’s backing “the bonds were placed and here we are” on time and on budget, he said.

Turning to Fulks, Wolfe said, “I guess the only thing to do is publicly apologize for not having enough confidence in you and the hospital leadership.”

“Leaders don’t wait on perfect timing,” he said, “because in the world we live in there is no perfect time. For their tenacity, this community should always be thankful.”

The grand opening included tours of the 130,000-square-foot building, which is scheduled to begin operations on June 1. The four-story structure includes a new hospital main entrance, lobby, heart clinic, emergency department, intensive care unit, and obstetrics unit.

“This is the start of an incredible new journey,” said McKibben, chairman of the LaGrange-Troup County Hospital Authority. “We’re in a better position to meet the needs of the community in a multitude of areas. The potential is so great and we’ve hardly scratched the surface.”

Fulks called it “a huge milestone for West Georgia Health and our entire community,” adding, “Moments like this come only once or twice in the history of an organization.”

The South Tower “incorporates the latest technological advances in medical care,” he said, “and it was designed by the people who will work in it every day.”

Patients and their families will experience a “welcoming environment,” he said, and the nurses stations are arranged so nurses are always within a few steps of the patients.

Dr. Sandy Simmons, president of the medical staff, said the South Tower has been “a long journey, but the end result far exceeded our expectations. The future looks bright for West Georgia Health.”

Georgia Chamber of Commerce President George Israel said the South Tower is especially important with the addition of a $1 billion Kia Motors plant in West Point and the transfer of 28,000 soldiers from Fort Knox to Fort Benning.

“It will encourage job creation, improve the quality of life and ensure the future stability of this great community,” he said.

U.S. Sen Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) said he knows something about intensive care units since he was in one earlier this year for a bacterial infection.

“You have a state of the art, 21st Century hospital in LaGrange and Troup County, and you should be very, very proud,” he said.

The South Tower includes 52 paintings and working drawings by LaGrange native Lamar Dodd and various other local artists. Dodd’s paintings had been in the adjacent Heart Clinic, which will be razed for additional parking an expansion of the South Tower’s lobby.

The Callaway Foundation matched $2 million from a fund-raising campaign led by Dr. John Jackson to get the project off the ground.

Fulks said a comprehensive cancer center may be the next campaign, but that’s a topic for another day.