The continuing decline of taxpayer support for the proposed medical facility in St. Helens was apparent last Wednesday when the State of Oregon held a public hearing for the purpose of approving or declining a Certificate of Need for the proposed facility, which was held at the St. Helens library. Nearly 5 years after the taxpayers approved the levy that enabled the health district to pursue a critical access Hospital the reality of getting the facility is still in limbo.

A huge crowd of disgruntled taxpayers gave public testimony against the facility. The reasons varied from to costly, spending taxpayer dollars for a lobbyist to lobby Congressman to try and change the rules for St. Helens so they could get under the Critical Access designation which would literary take an act of congress, the facility is not what was presented on the ballot to the taxpayers, the board took tax revenue from the passed levy and paid off the public health building and transferred funds to public health all which was a no, no, not enough money to run the facility, can collect 38 cents per thousand for ever and never ever build a hospital, spending money right and left spending over 1 million dollars for site preparation when they are not sure if they will be permitted, the hospital board was not open with public records, double ambulance rides, no doctors, and the fact that there are time sensitive medical problems that can not be corrected if the patient is detained at St. Helens than later transported to a Portland facility. It was brought up several times that people wanted another chance to vote on the facility, and this time a true description of what was being presented to the voters.

This board is the cause the facility failed to get the Critical Access designation. When they failed to fill out the simple application for a Critical Access Hospital before the program was cut, if they had done so they could have fallen under the Sunset clause, their incompetent failure cost huge amounts of federal reimbursement dollars for the facility, the cuts for Medicare and Medicaid are quit substantial and the loss of these funds added to the monetary obligation to the taxpayers in the " Health District"

I also understand that Mc Naulty water PUD is having a problem with the board, the hospital needs huge amounts of water, Mc Naulty said that the hospital would need a 10 inch pipe for adequate water flow, and the board does not want to pay for the 10 inch pipe they want a 4 inch pipe, So the board is dickering with the City of St. Helens for water, the problem here is, the property is in the county and must be annexed into the city before they can receive city services, The property must be contiguous and it fails that definition as well.

(Annexation can not happen until November 2010 an even year and general election) and the fact that under Oregon statutes they must receive water from the PUD in which they are in. The facility cannot be Cherry Stemmed in either. There are many problems that this facility faces, all that are equally important. I am very interested in what kind of decision the state of Oregon makes in this issue. It has been obvious from the beginning when the board faced their failure in acquiring critical access designation that they would continue on beating their hard heads against the wall with no regard to what the taxpayer wanted. There is no shame in making a mistake and no one really faults them for their huge mistake. What people are faulting them for is their failure to say 'we made a mistake "and their failure to have enough sense to stop the bleeding of the poor taxpayers.