BEDFORD — Bedford County residents and officials are pursuing means to replace lost UPMC services and seek more money from the hospital chain, as anger boils over planned service cuts.

At their meeting Tuesday, the Bedford County commissioners questioned recent announcements that UPMC Bedford Memorial hospital would end baby deliveries and inpatient dialysis. Some on the board expressed interest in a new plan to establish an independent childbirth center in the county.

The meeting came less than a day after the Bedford Area School Board voted to seek a review of UPMC’s tax-exempt status in the county.

“It is not the time to stay quiet if you want to try and turn somebody’s head to look in a different direction,” Commissioner Barry Dallara told an audience of county residents Tuesday. “What I am concerned about is that (UPMC) put the well-being of to-be mothers at great risk.”

The commissioners expressed interest in a plan, proposed by resident Sherri Peeler, to establish a community-supported birthing center in the county. Peeler, who works as a so-called doula or birth supporter for pregnant women, said such a center could save money and time over a hospital like UPMC Bedford.

Some in the audience whispered and spoke out in support of Peeler’s idea, which would replace the UPMC Bedford maternity ward set to close Dec. 1.

UPMC officials have stressed that other pregnancy services will be available after the ward closes. But births will have to be carried out in Altoona, a 40-minute drive for many in the county.

Peeler said she has seen many expectant mothers in Bedford County discuss their plans online to wait until the last possible moment when they go into labor, forcing staff at UPMC Bedford to care for them when the time comes.

The idea is dangerous and unlikely to work, Peeler said, but it shows the desperation some women feel.

The commissioners agreed to speak with Peeler to further discuss her plan.

“This would eliminate the need for women with a normal physiological birth to have to go to Altoona,” she said.

Other agencies are considering different options. On Monday, the Bedford Area School Board voted to send formal letters to county officials seeking a review of the hospital chain’s tax-exempt status.

“Are they holding up their end of the bargain?” Board President Tom Bullington asked, according to the Bedford Gazette.

Dallara, the commissioner, said county officials plan to seek help from their tax assessment solicitor to review UPMC’s status. Many nonprofit hospitals in the state reach deals with local governments to provide some money in lieu of property taxes, he noted.

Dallara pointed to five letters from county groups and offices — including Bedford County Children & Youth Services, the Bedford Sunrise Rotary and Your Safe Haven, a women’s shelter — urging UPMC leaders to reconsider their maternity and dialysis plans.

“I cannot stress enough the impact the decision from UPMC … will have on our most vulnerable population, our newborns,” Children & Youth Services Director Lisa Cairo wrote on Oct. 4.

Commissioners Chairman Josh Lang said he fears other services, including pediatric care, could soon be wound down, as well.

UPMC representatives have defended their decisions, noting that the number of births in Bedford County doesn’t justify a fully staffed department there. They have pointed to millions of dollars’ worth of capital investments at UPMC Bedford in recent years, stressing their ties to the community since the chain acquired the hospital in 1998.

When the facility was first opened in 1951 as the Bedford County Memorial Hospital, it followed a yearslong fundraising program with help from government agencies. That would likely be needed again if county residents chose to back a local birthing center — a goal that resident and radio host Lloyd Roach said might be attainable.

“I think you will be surprised at the amount of support you will find from the average citizen like me, and businesses, to put your idea together,” Roach told Peeler on Tuesday. “You’ve got a great community around you here that is well aware of the issue.”

Mirror Staff Writer Ryan Brown is at 946-7457.