New County Commission Hears Hospital, EMS Statistics from Maury Regional

Monday evening, September 21, 2026, was a rather momentous event for Wayne County. It was the first full commission meeting of the new term of the Wayne County Commission, with newly elected commissioners filling all but three of the seats previously held by commissioners who served for several terms.

Three commissioners were re-elected to their seats on the commission after already serving at least one term: Logan Shull, District 1; David Martin, District 6; and Alvin Creecy, District 7.

County Executive John McDonald, who presided over the meeting, introduced each of the commissioners by district. District 1: Logan Shull, Paxton Prince; District 2: Jacob Littrell, Randy Burns; District 3: Caleb Cummings, David Horner; District 4: Gunner Rich, Josh Davis; District 5: Daniel Potete, Victoria Lanier; District 6: David Martin, Ricky Wright; District 7: Alvin Creecy, Ronnie Hobbs.

Also present at this milestone meeting were newly elected and sworn in County Executive John McDonald, County Clerk Ronnie Skelton, and Interim County Attorney Chassity Berlin. Financial Advisor Lori Brasher was present as well.

Commissioner David Martin offered the invocation as the meeting began.

The first order of business was election of a Chairman of the Board of Commissioners. County Executive John McDonald was unanimously elected as Chairman of the Board, and Commissioner Logan Shull was appointed as Chairman Pro Tem (responsible for temporarily carrying out the duties of Chairman of the Board if for any reason the Chairman is unable to do so). Chassity Berlin was unanimously elected to serve as Interim County Attorney until a new County Attorney is selected to be voted into the position.

County Executive McDonald announced that he would notify each commissioner after all committee members are decided upon (i.e. Budget Committee, Building Committee, etc.).

One citizen signed up to speak during the public forum part of the meeting. She expressed concern about the possibility of a data center coming to Wayne County, and said her greatest concern was that the community may not be notified of the construction of a data center in a timely manner.

The next order of business was approval of minutes from the previous meeting. Those minutes were unanimously approved.

County Clerk Ronnie Skelton presented nine for approval as notaries: Amanda Ross, Alexandra Devlin, Vickie Petty, Christi Moore, Renee Allen, Stephanie Barnett, Betina Sanders, Dana Simmons, and Rhonda Vaughn. The notaries were unanimously approved.

Budget amendments were next on the agenda. Sheriff Shane Fisher explained a line-item budget amendment for his department, whereas money collected from former deputies’ unfulfilled contracts was transferred into another fund to cover travel expenses for new deputies going through training.

A separate line-item budget amendment in Sheriff Fisher’s department was where money received from the state was transferred into the School Resource Officer (SRO) fund to cover fuel expenses for the SROs. Other monies of this nature will be used for educational materials the SROs will distribute to students. The Sheriff’s Department budget amendments were unanimously approved.

Other line-item budget amendments approved by the commission were in the departments of Clerk & Master, Wayne County Library, Solid Waste, Capital Projects, Tourism, Recreation, and Rural Fire.

In the absence of Director of Schools, Dr. Ricky Inman, Administrative Assistant Cindy Risner presented the line-item budget amendments in the School System department. Funds were moved from Educational Capital Projects into a fund to pay for the new roof on Collinwood Middle School. In another line item, funds were moved from Fund Balance to cover the purchase of two new school buses.

Ms. Risner said the school system received approximately $97,000 in TVA incentives, which was moved to Debt Services to pay for this year’s Energy Efficient Schools Initiative (EESI), a state program that provides low-interest revolving loans to public school districts for capital improvement projects that reduce energy consumption and utility costs.

Paige Vaughn, a National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist based in Nashville, presented E-911 Director Brian Smith with a certificate declaring Wayne County as Storm Ready Certified. Ms. Vaughn explained that Wayne County is set up to receive alerts from the National Weather Service as they are issued, and praised the open communication with NWS that is facilitated by E-911 Director Brian Smith.

Under old business on the agenda, County Executive McDonald reported that Suite B in the county-owned medical office building next to Wayne Medical Center had been rented to Sonny’s Place, a business offering pediatric services including occupational therapy and physical therapy, at the rate of $1,475 per month. There are also interested parties that want to rent Suites A and C.

County Executive McDonald asked Administrative Assistant Cindy Risner to give an update on the new Collinwood Medical Clinic. Ms. Risner said the clinic is nearing completion and is expected to open sometime around the end of October or the beginning of November.

Mr. McDonald said that both a part-time maintenance man, Ronnie Breeden, and a full-time maintenance man, Evel Butler, had been hired to fill the open positions. Both will first be working to complete projects at the county-owned rental house behind Wayne Medical Center, and an interested renter is already making plans to move into the house when it is ready.

Next on the agenda was the approval of the Trustee bond for Wayne County Trustee, Sheila Rich. The bond was unanimously approved on roll call vote.

Wayne County Industrial Development Board (IDB) President Martin Haggard addressed the commission next, stating that two members of the board, John McDonald and Jason Rich, had resigned. He recommended the two seats on the board be filled by Jake Brewer and Tom Mathis. The two recommended appointees were unanimously approved by the commission.

County Clerk Skelton asked next asked for the removal of Jimmy Warren from the Beer Board and recommended that David Horner be added. The commission unanimously approved both recommendations.

Next, County Executive McDonald introduced Dr. Martin Chaney, CEO of Maury Regional Hospital. Dr. Chaney followed with a presentation on the partnership of Wayne Medical Center and Maury Regional Health.

Dr. Chaney began by reminding the commission that Maury Regional Health has provided services in Wayne County for over 30 years. He told the commission that Maury Regional is now affiliated with the University of Tennessee Health System, and Maury now trains new medical professionals as part of this affiliation. He said that each year at Maury Regional facilities, an average of 600 “learners,” including internal medicine doctors, are trained on-site.

Dr. Chaney showed a PowerPoint slide presentation to the commission and attendees, and explained certain points along the way. Dr. Chaney first touched on the fact that rural hospitals are at risk of closing in almost every state, including Tennessee. In the majority of states, more than 25% or rural hospitals are at risk. In ten states, 50% or more are at risk. He said that thankfully, Wayne Medical Center is no longer at risk of closing due to its designation as a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH). In 2022, the new REH designation was implemented with the aim of preventing facility closures and preserving access to care, particularly emergency and other outpatient services. Wayne Medical Center officially transitioned to an REH designation on December 1, 2024, following many months of negotiations and uncertainty about its future.

The REH designation is a Medicare provider type that allows approved rural hospitals to continue providing essential services. Under this designation, Wayne Medical Center offers a 24/7 Emergency Department and observation services for patients who need additional testing to determine the path to discharge or transfer for additional care. Diagnostic testing services offered include X-ray, CT and laboratory. Wayne Medical Center also continues to provide the outpatient services of endoscopy, mammography, and physical therapy.

[Editor’s note: What we lost when Wayne Medical Center became an REH is inpatient care AT WAYNE MEDICAL. This is something many Wayne Countians miss; it was much easier to visit a hospitalized loved one at Wayne Medical Center in Waynesboro than in Columbia at Maury Regional Medical Center. It has been noted that a city or town that has a hospital is much more appealing to anyone looking at moving here and making Wayne County their home.]

Dr. Chaney pointed out that Maury Regional has subsidized approximately $12.3 million in losses to make sure Wayne Countians don’t lose medical and EMS services.

Statistics were provided by Dr. Chaney in his presentation to the commission. He noted that the statistics presented were from fiscal year 2025-26.

Maury partners with Southland MD to provide 24/7 physician coverage in the Wayne Medical Emergency Department. The Wayne Medical ED had 4,487 visits, or people seen, in the last fiscal year. That is an average of about 12 people per day.

In laboratory and radiological services, 758 MRIs were performed; 3,520 CT scans; and 2,596 mammograms. In FY26 there were 2,631 physical therapy treatments.

Dr. Chaney then spoke about EMS services and presented statistics from FY26. Wayne County EMS operates three Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances per shift. Each ALS ambulance staffs a minimum of one paramedic and one Advanced EMT (AEMT). Shift rotation is 24 hours on and 72 hours off in a four-shift rotation. Each 24-hour shift also requires an Emergency Medical dispatcher.

In the last fiscal year, the total number of 911 EMS calls was 2,578, an average of seven per day. Five hundred forty-eight were transferred to a higher level of care (a larger hospital, such as Maury Regional).

[See the Average Response Times table we have included with this article for a breakdown of EMS response times to communities around the county.]

Dr. Chaney’s presentation included an EMS Financial Summary detailing the costs of running the ambulance service. According to the summary, Maury Regional provided a subsidy amount of $720,300 in FY26 to keep the ambulance service going.

On a positive note, Dr. Chaney reported that Maury Regional Medical Group-Waynesboro, (Dr. Haresh Veeramachaneni) had a 98.5% positive feedback score from the patient experience survey. This is a very high score; in fact, Dr. Chaney said he didn’t know of any other MRMG offices receiving that high of an approval rate. Congratulations to Dr. V; Paula Cole, FNP; Kendra Prater-Holt, FNP; and all the nurses and office staff at MRMG Waynesboro!

Following Dr. Chaney’s presentation, the commission discussed issues that citizens may have with using the Wayne Medical Center Emergency Department. Many concurred that there is a common way of thinking that suggests a small-town hospital or emergency room is just not capable of treating serious illnesses or injuries. Dr. Chaney assured everyone that the WMC Emergency Department has a doctor on shift 24/7, along with nurses, many of them local, who are all highly trained and capable of treating all kinds of medical issues, and transferring patients to a higher-level hospital if necessary.

Commissioner Caleb Cummings brought up several valid points to Dr. Chaney about issues at Wayne Medical Center and challenged Dr. Chaney to come up with ways to interact with community members outside of the hospital setting in order to foster a better relationship with Maury Regional Medical Group and Wayne Medical Center. Dr. Chaney agreed this was a great idea.

County Executive McDonald said that to wrap up Dr. Chaney’s portion of the meeting, he had one question. “We have tippy-toed all around the numbers – what is the 2027 budget number you have [for Wayne Medical/EMS] so we [Wayne County Commission] can begin working on our budget?”

After a moment of thought, Dr. Chaney said he hoped to reduce the $720,300 subsidy that Maury provided Wayne County EMS last fiscal year by 50%. It was not clear when Dr. Chaney finished if this was the complete answer for the question asked by County Executive McDonald.

Department reports were next on the agenda. Sheriff Shane Fisher began with a brief update on his department. He said that the Wayne County Jail averaged housing 89 state inmates per day in the past month, generating $4,183 per day in revenue. The Sheriff’s Office received 337 calls last month, making 44 arrests, and issued four citations for driving offenses. Fifty-four warning citations were issued.

Road Superintendent Chuck Moser presented a report on his department next. He first said that a portion of Robbins Road off Rayburn Creek Road had been proposed by the Monroe family to be dedicated to the late Gary Monroe. Mr. Monroe was a veteran who lived on this road, and the American Legion will perform the dedication ceremony to declare this as Sergeant 1st Class Gary Walter Monroe Roadway. The commission unanimously approved the road dedication.

Mr. Moser said that the Jack Davidson family had requested to name a bridge on Highway 64 West in honor of Mr. Davidson. It is a state bridge, but the county must approve it first before it goes to the state for approval. The commission also unanimously approved the renaming of the bridge.

Superintendent Moser asked that Meat Road off Highway 13 North be removed from the county road list. The request was unanimously approved.

Mr. Moser addressed the issue of why the county hasn’t done tar & gravel road work that was promised this summer. He explained that Wayne County Rock still did not have their new equipment up and running that would provide the rock material needed for all the projects, and they are the cheapest option by far as compared to other quotes for materials.

Lindsay Ross presented the department report for the Solid Waste Department. She said that a new adopt-a-roadway program was being offered to the communities in Wayne County for recycling and litter removal. The program is called “Roadside Pride – Adopt the Road You Call Home.” Ms. Ross also encouraged the commissioners to tour the solid waste facility.

Rena Purdy, Wayne County JECDB Director, welcomed the new commission and noted some upcoming meetings. On October 23rd, there will be two meetings: Stults Custom Cuts Grand Opening, an all-day event, and Buffalo River State Park Dedication Ceremony at 1:00 p.m.

IT Director Mike Floyd gave a brief report on his department, stating that he would be working with the interim county attorney on guidelines regarding the use of personal cell phones. He also said that a cyber security class and a mock disaster drill have been considered.

A request was made to change the commission meeting time to 6:00 p.m. Alvin Creecy made the motion, David Martin seconded, and all voted “aye” to pass the motion unanimously.

Financial Advisor Lori Brasher said she would be scheduling a budget class for new commissioners right before the next commission meeting on October 19th at 5:30 p.m. Everyone is encouraged to attend.

With no further business to come before the commission, the meeting was adjourned.