Tammy's views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy's neighbors, Earl Fisher, Betsy Johnson, Joe Corsiglia, Rita Bernhard, her grand kids, Tony Hyde, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia's dog, or Claudia Eagle's Cats. This Tammy's Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she won't take crap off of anyone.

Everyone knows by now that the St. Helens hospital project proposal has been denied for a second time by the State of Oregon. How many times does this board have to be denied before they stop spending the taxpayer's money on a project that is not going anywhere?

The hospital board has failed to prove financial viability, a point that was brought forth by concerned citizens nearly 6 years ago. Coordinator for health district Pam Pulliam characterizes their consultants as the "dream team" and stated that they had left no stone unturned.

In my opinion the dream team would gladly continue to turn over the same stones time and time again because they were receiving fat checks from the health district

Excuse me Mrs. Pulliam but you and the rest of the hospital board have blatantly lied to the taxpayers of the Health District. You were funneling money to public health, and continued to deny such accusations when asked for 6 years.

A Board member's own statement published in a news letter by the Columbia Health District has finally brought to light one of the lies that the hospital board has been saying on the issue if the hospital board was funneling money to public health from the 2004 ballot measure. (read on)
While the board was discussing their recent denial for their hospital proposal they addressed the important issue of the up coming November election where the taxpayers will be asked to vote on whether to continue funding the hospital proposal or deny the district the 38 cent per thousand never ending tax that they have been paying since 2004. Under this discussion Jay Tappen states that the initiative was very poorly written and confusing.

I do not believe there is anything confusing about the ballot measure it is straight up and direct, it would simply take away all funds to the hospital district. Which they certainly do not need since they cannot build a facility.

Tappens next comment was quite interesting he stated that if the ballot measure in Nov. passes and the health district looses all their funding the health district would not be able to provide umbrella protection for prenatal services for PUBLIC HEALTH, With out the money from the 38 cents per thousand ballot measure Public health could not offer prenatal services.

WAIT A DARN MINUTE, the ballot measure of 2004 states that no tax revenues were expected to fund public health.

The health district LIED. The health district also had space drawn into the plans for Public health at the hospital facility, so the health district was directly using money from the ballot measure of 2004 to fund and benefit Public health. What a bunch of Liar's

The health district wrote their ballot measure in 2004, and the public was presented two ballot measures, one was to abolish the old existing district and form a new one, when they abolished the old district their tax revenue of $.0107 went away too. And the health district depended on their new rate to build a critical access hospital, which we all know cannot get built.

This board is the one that failed to address the fact that Public health would not be able to receive a nickel from the new tax rate. When this board transferred money to public health they deliberately deceived the taxpayers.

Tappen and his fellow board members are afraid that the Nov. Ballot measure will pass, and when it does the health district will have to pay back all the money collected since 2004 and the district has no funds.

I have an easy answer to Mr. Tappen and the rest of the board, the health district owns developed property on Millard Rd. where your hospital proposals if accepted by the state of Oregon would have been built. They have spent nearly $1.2 million on development of the property, which they were advised not to develop by the state of Oregon, until you were granted a certificate of need.

They forged ahead against good sound advice. Their foolish ideas need to be halted. I suggest that a lien be put on that said piece of property on behalf of the taxpayers in the health district for repayment of money collected deceitfully since 2004.

I hope that the voters have followed this painfully expensive saga of an inept health district board, and put a stop to needless spending of hard-earned tax dollars. Come November mark a yes on ballot measure 5-209 and repel this drain on the taxpayers pocket books.