BELHAVEN — The town of Belhaven and the NC NAACP are not done fighting the closure of Vidant Pungo Hospital, although they are facing a Tuesday deadline and questions have been raised about whether the hospital will still close on July 1.

The North Carolina NAACP and its Beaufort and Hyde County branches, the town and members of the group working to transition ownership of the hospital to a new community board held a press conference in downtown Greenville on June 27, highlighting the Supplemental Title VI Complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Justice and Health and Human Services, according to a NC NAACP press release. The complaint requested immediate assistance from the U.S. Justice Department to stop Vidant and the board of its partner organization from destroying the hospital on July 1.

The town and NC NAACP have been working together since April 3 on preparing to assume possession of the hospital on July 1 and turn it into a model rural hospital for the state and nation, the release said.

At the press conference, the town and NAACP representatives blamed Vidant for delays in obtaining the transfer and the last minute glitch in the hospital transfer on Pantego Creek, LLC, the group formed to represent the interests of investors from the original Pungo District Hospital and charged with overseeing the 2011 contract with Vidant Health, according to a NC NAACP news release. The LLC rejected a request by the town to extend the transfer deadline by six months last week in a letter from its attorney Arey W. Grady II. The letter stated the 103 members of the LLC would not go along with the deal that Vidant Health, the NC NAACP and the Belhaven Town Council had negotiated for the transfer.

“Pantego Creek, LLC’s managers Brantley Tillman, Deb Sparrow, Lynn Ross and Darren Armstrong sent out a letter two weeks ago that was uninformed, ill-timed and undermining of our efforts to save the hospital,” Belhaven Mayor Adam O’Neal. “These people did not notify their members about the letter. They obviously have an allegiance with Vidant and I am certain they do not represent the majority of their members and certainly not a supermajority it would require to dispose of the hospital. If Vidant was working in good faith to get our hospital back to our community, they would certainly give us the extra couple months it would take to get things in order.“

O’Neal went on to say that the town was about 90 percent complete on coming up with a feasible plan to transfer ownership and run the hospital for a profit.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, NC NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II said if the hospital closes “people will die.”

In response to O’Neal’s allegations, Vidant issued a short statement Friday afternoon.

“We are surprised by the mayor’s inaccurate comments and allegations from the NC NAACP and are choosing not to respond at this time,” said Roger Robertson, president of Vidant Community Hospitals.