VIDALIA — Future options for Riverland Medical Center are expected to be unveiled today at the Concordia Parish Police Jury meeting.

The hospital’s board of trustees has been studying options for the hospital’s future for two years.

Hospital board chair Jim Graves said Friday the committee is ready to unveil its recommendations.

“The leg work has been done,” he said. “From now on, I think progression should start moving.

“It has been frustrating. But when you are making a decision about something that costs this kind of money, you can’t leave any stone unturned.”

Graves said the funding mechanism would mostly be through USDA programs.

The committee is considering potentially buying one of four locations they are looking at in the town of Ferriday.

“We just want to see what the best deal is that also matches what we are trying to do with the building,” he said. “We want it to be in the most advantageous location.”

The committee has reported that the most likely locations are building near the current hospital, or potentially moving it closer to Jonesville, to bring in additional business, or off of U.S. 84 closer to Vidalia, for more visibility.

The committee has hired consultants, which Graves said would be paid for through federal programs, to help locate a site where the percentage of parish residents who use the facility will go up. Currently, just 17 percent of the parish’s 18,000 residents reportedly use Riverland for medical needs.

The estimated cost of the facility has been previously reported to be approximately $40 million.

Police Jury President Jimmy Jernigan said he is for a new hospital if the board could show a way to pay for it.

“I think a new hospital in this area would do wonders,” he said. “But if they can’t show us a way to pay for it, we can’t go out and build it.”

Jernigan welcomed residents to come to Monday’s meeting.

“The more people come and get involved, the better off the parish is,” he said.

The police jury, which will ultimately make the decision on whether to build a new hospital, meets at 6 p.m. on the second floor of the parish courthouse off Carter Street in the juror chambers.