Dear Editor,
Maybe the county should have considered maintaining, correcting and preserving the present hospital. The design was for upward expansion. Maintenance issues should have been ad-dressed and corrected.
New hospital, a thorn in the side of many, both pro and con: Upon reading the latest news article in the local newspaper, it appears obvious the hospital needs to be built on a different site. The site north of Iola at a reasonable price would allow room for expansion, visible from highway and away from traffic congestion. The odor of the dairy farm, which may at times be somewhat offensive, is not such a big issue for a rural community. Patients will be excited and very glad to become well enough to leave the hospital and to smell, see, hear and feel God’s great outdoors. Employees will be glad to do the best job possible and leave the facility to go home to families with any odor a minor inconvenience.
At the present time, the cost of land and preparing the site is becoming astronomical. Per 6/8/11 news article, the suggestion has been to add $1 million to budgeted cost of the new hospital. As citizens/taxpayers we should get to vote or answer a survey as to site of a new hospital and ever rising cost. As experienced in the past, citizens are given the projected cost of a project and when completed most generally is considerably more. As citizens and taxpayers, we must speak up. Enough is enough. To all citizens, if it makes a difference to you, please let the committee and those in power know how you feel. As citizens/taxpayers it is our constitutional right to state how we feel on the decisions being made.
Get real, hospital committee and county (City of Iola also), the taxpayers are tired of being told one thing in the beginning and/or to obtain votes and the end reality is entirely different. Taxpayers are not an open bank account for spending at will. Stop, think and investigate before spending.
Judy Snavely
Iola, Kan.
