We are happy to see the Adams County Board of Supervisors working to find a solution for the employees of the former Natchez Regional Medical Center whose retirement is left in a state of limbo because the bankrupt hospital failed to pay some of its matching funds.

During the fiasco that was the final months of the hospital’s operation, it was discovered, while the employees’ portion of retirement benefits were paid into Mississippi’s Public Employees Retirement System, the hospital didn’t pay its required match and hadn’t since November 2013.

It wasn’t until after the county-owned hospital filed for bankruptcy in March 2014 employees learned the hospital’s management had not fulfilled its obligation to pay its portion.

Supervisor Mike Lazarus said at Tuesday’s board meeting the county has every intention of honoring what he called the contract between the hospital and its employees, though Supervisor Darryl Grennell said the board also would question whether it would be legal for the county to pay the hospital’s portion of the retirement benefits.

In reality, it seems any contract was between employees and Adams County, since the hospital was at the time county owned.

The issue is a complex one. Calculating what needs to be paid to keep the employees’ retirement “whole,” will be no easy task.

Nonetheless, it seems the obligation indeed is the county’s to make right on behalf of the hospital’s employees.