Billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade, has donated $1 million to help with the build of a new rural hospital in the state that is facing a funding gap, according to a Feb. 20 Jackson Hole Daily report.
Inflation and increases in construction costs have resulted in a shortfall of $9.2 million ahead of a spring timeline to start construction of the planned hospital in Sublette County, about 80 miles south of Jackson.
With the $1 million donation, the Sublette County Health Foundation needs to raise the remaining $8.2 million quickly to finish to construction at the end of 2024, the report said.
Local residents voted in November 2020 to fund the building of a critical access hospital, but, with the project still up in the air, patients currently have to travel north to Jackson, Wyo., or about 100 miles south to Rock Springs, Wyo., to get such care.
The Sublette County Board of County Commissioners will meet Tuesday to discuss the remaining funding gap, the report said.