Cutting the ribbon on Shelby Baptist Medical Center’s new South Tower this week will mean much more to our community than simply the opportunity to welcome a local business expansion.

SBMC’s new facility is after all, the largest single investment ever made with the sole purpose of keeping Shelby County citizens well.

It comes at a time when many business leaders would have delayed or even scrapped plans to invest in expanded facilities and enhanced customer care.

This ribbon cutting is more about perseverance and doing the right thing for our community and its people. It’s about providing cutting edge health care close to home today and long into the future.

And this ribbon cutting is about being the sort of corporate citizen every community dreams of having.

Shelby Baptist’s new 101-bed tower features state-of-the art patient care with the amenities one might expect from a nice hotel rather than a hospital: stone counters, wood trim, big windows, warm colors, wi-fi and inviting smiles.

Some five stories and nearly 168,000 square-feet in size, construction and design costs for the new tower totaled $92 million. The facility blends nicely with the existing SBMC campus.

As a community, we should take time to celebrate SBMC’s ribbon cutting this week as a substantial step forward for our county and for one of our leading corporate citizens.

We each may very well find that our most meaningful celebration of SBMC’s new tower won’t come this week but instead sometime in the future, when we or someone we love receives lifesaving care in the new facility.

Such a celebration is, I expect, exactly what leaders of SBMC had in mind.