Some residents in the Tri County area have been waiting for over two decades for a hosiptal to be built in the area, but plans for a new hpsital in Cheiefland are still up in the air. The company that wants to build the hospital, Ameris, appears to have a verbal go-ahead from the State, but before a written certificate of need could be issued, another hospital stepped in.

A document filed with the State's Agency for Health Care Administration, North Florida representatives say the hospital "would be substantially and adversely affected by any ahca decision to approve the Ameris" certificate of need application.

"Everyone anticipates the Certificate of Need and yet there is this cloud hanging over it today," says Ron McQueen, Gilchrist County Coordinator. "It hasn't actually been issued but the people are hopeful, we certainly having been waiting for years for this project to move forward. I think it's demonstrated its need."

At one point North Florida had also wanted to build a hospital in the Tri County Area, but now North Florida's administrator, Jamie Thomas, tells WCJB that they want to make sure Ameris delivers what it has promised.