Upcoming election is best chance for change

Soon ballots for the upcoming election will be showing up in mailboxes. Three of the seats on the hospital board – a majority – are being contested. By now, most or all voters have probably made up their minds on the rights and wrongs of matters, and there is little point in rehashing the merits.

If you were and remain upset by the actions of the board in January, and its continuing actions since then, this is your one and only chance to change things. Make no mistake: the hospital, and thus the Emergency Room that could literally make the difference between life and death for you or a loved one, is not a fixture; over the last two decades, about one in three of all trauma centers in the nation had to close their doors. It can happen here. The candidates for those three positions readily divide into two sets: those who largely support and would continue the present board’s plans and policies (including spending literally millions of dollars on marginal or needless projects), and those who sharply disagree with those plans and policies and would make important changes.

This election is the community’s last best chance for changing the direction that the current board, and district management, have been going in.

Vote. That is the whole message: don’t fume and fret – vote. Make sure you fill in your ballot for Stacey Plummer, Jerry Snyder and Jeff Reynolds, and promptly return that ballot. Don’t set it aside and take a chance on forgetting to get it in on time. Fill it in and return it the very day you get it.

Please: Vote. It’s now or never. Plummer, Snyder, Reynolds.

Eric Walker, Ritzville