If there is no sale, CMC officials could have a difficult time convincing the state that progress can be made.

“I have to be able to convince the state of Alabama that we are financially viable,” Chapin said. “If something doesn’t happen very soon, I won’t be able to do that.”

Board member Allen Payton described the mood of the situation: “It may very well have to close to clean this mess up. That’s the saddest part about all this. I just don’t see a way out at this point.”

James Cheek, former president of Carraway, and Herschel Breig, former Carraway executive vice president, are serving five-year prison sentences after being found guilty of hiding about $5 million that should have been paid to cover employee payroll taxes at a hospital in Lubbock, Texas.

Upon James Cheek’s imprisonment, his brother, Ted Cheek, was named president of Carraway. He works out of an office across from CMC off Lay Dam Road but did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

Chris Cheek, whose relationship to the rest of the Cheek family couldn’t be verified at press time, attended the meeting but told those in attendance that he didn’t have any authority to make decisions about the hospital.

In August, CMC employee Scott Cheek was arrested by Hempstead County (Ark.) Sheriff’s Department officers with the help of Clanton Police. Cheek was accused of illegally transferring hospital beds from a Carraway-owned facility in Hope, Ark., to CMC.

Cheek, the nephew of James Cheek and Ted Cheek, was maintenance supervisor at both hospitals at the time of the transfer, Chapin said in July.