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Westmoreland principal asks Sumner County to consider using hospital-sale funds to help repay community loan for field house
Summary
Westmoreland High School principal Rick Duffer asked the county to forgive or help repay a loan used to build a 50-year‑old field house replacement; the Budget Committee voted to consider the request as part of next year's budget process.
Rick Duffer, principal of Westmoreland High School, told the Sumner County Budget Committee that community members and a school support nonprofit took on personal debt to build a new field house and are now struggling with loan payments. He asked the county to consider using funds from the sale of the county hospital to help repay the debt.
Duffer said community members signed notes—some secured by home equity—to borrow roughly $300,000 when inflation made a longer fundraising timeline untenable. He told the committee: “I am here respectfully asking for your help. Not asking for a tax increase on the people in Sumner County, but to take money that we have and help us pay off this debt.”
Committee members debated the request at length. Several commissioners expressed sympathy, but many also cautioned against creating a precedent that might prompt similar requests from other school booster and support organizations. Committee members noted the county has already spent capital funds to improve athletic facilities at several high schools and that treating private debt as a county obligation could trigger more broad requests.
The committee took no immediate payment action. Instead members approved a motion to consider the Westmoreland request and related support‑organization debts during the FY2025–26 budget process so countywide priorities and the scale of similar requests can be reviewed together. The motion carried with one recorded no vote.
Clarifying details: During the discussion committee members referenced a figure of about $274,000 as the approximate amount tied to Westmoreland in committee discussion; Duffer described the original loan as “for 300,000 and some change” that community members guaranteed. Duffer specifically asked whether money remaining from proceeds of the county hospital sale could be used. The committee asked county staff to assemble an inventory of school-support organization debts across the county before taking further action.
Next steps: Staff will collect figures on outstanding nonprofit debts tied to school projects and include Westmoreland’s request for committee review in next year’s budget deliberations.
