Officials with the City of Pineville announced Tuesday their intentions of submitting a bid to purchase the Pineville Community Health Center.

An emergency meeting was held Tuesday that went into an executive session lasting approximately an hour and a half.

At the conclusion of the executive session, councilman Tuck Woolum made the motion that the city submit their bid on the hospital. Woolum’s motion was seconded by councilwoman Pat Bingham. The motion passed unanimously.

The deadline for sealed bids was Tuesday at 5 p.m. for all the hospital properties or for individual pieces of property owned by the hospital.

The top three bidders will go into an online bidding portal Thursday to submit their final bids. The proceeds from the auction will be used to repay debts that were incurred by the hospital when it was known as Pineville Community Hospital to settle the bankruptcy case.

According to Pineville Mayor Scott Madon, it is something they felt like the city needed to do to secure some of the assets for the community.

Before going into executive session, Madon gave the council a quick update on the bidding process and how things are progressing at the hospital.

The mayor said the Office of Inspector General has been inspecting the hospital over the last seven days. Exit interviews were expected to be completed on Tuesday as part of a process to get the hospital’s Medicare number reinstated.

Madon said he had been in contact with both representatives from Tranzon Asset Advisors, who is conducting the auction, and the bankruptcy attorney on Tuesday.

When asked if it looked like enough bids had come in that a sale appeared likely, Madon said he thought there would be a sale.

The Pineville Sun contributed to information included in this story.