ROCK SPRINGS - Philanthropists, get your checkbooks out.

The board of the Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County approved the establishment of a hospital foundation that will allow benefactors to donate charitable funding to the county's only hospital facility.

New board attorney George Lemich presented a draft resolution to the board establishing the hospital foundation during a meeting Wednesday. The board approved the resolution and Lemich said he would file the incorporation forms with the Secretary of State next week.

Board members said that in the past, there has been no way for people to formally donate money to the hospital.

"This has been a long time coming," said board member Larry Caller. "In the past the hospital has received monies, but we didn't have a place to put it. Let's proceed with this as fast as possible."

The board could use all the donations it can get in light of the hospital's ambitious plan for an approximately $22 million renovation of the aging, 27-year-old facility.

Construction is set to begin this fall on part of the project, thanks in part to a $5 million grant from the state, but the remaining funding still needs to be raised, according to hospital administrators.

For more details read Friday's Casper Star-Tribune.