Act now on hospital ER decision (4/17/03)

To the editor:

To the taxpaying general public of Jay County: Wake up before the lights go out completely.

This situation is so critical it’s past time that we lose any time informing the Jay County Hospital administrator, the hospital chief of staff and board, and Jay County Commissioners, plus anyone else involved in this thoughtless, unreasonable, deceitful decision of replacing Preferred Medical Management Inc. with ECI of Traverse City, Mich.

The Jay County public can and should bring massive pressure on the hospital board to do their duty to the county ahead of appeasing the pressure groups and individuals who oppose Preferred Medical Management.

The group and individuals who desire and want to change to ECI are doing so for their own personal gain, not for the good of the general public who use the hospital ER facilities.

In the horse racing or horse pulling business when you have a winning horse or team you don’t trade it off for some sore-footed nag if you intend to keep winning. Preferred Medical Management has an excellent record. Why trade?

It’s later than you think. The time to act is now before it’s too late. April 23 is the next deadline, the next board meeting.

After ECI gets control and you have a problem, just remember when you call the man in charge you are not calling a local man who has the interest of the county in his heart. What I feel like will happen is you will get some recording that tells you to press 1 if you want to thank them and after pressing all 5 numbers you’ll probably end up with an answer that tells you they will look into the matter and thanks for calling ECI.

Also, don’t call Bill Davis about your ECI problem. After all, he is one of the few who have the guts to stand up for what is right. If there were four or five more Bill Davises on the hospital board we wouldn’t be facing this ridiculous situation.

The time to act is now. Remember the song Guy Lombardo’s Royal Canadian dance band played, “It’s Later Than You Think,” and a dollar bill doesn’t kiss you back.

When you have the best, why change? Thanks for reading this.

Sincerely,

Fred W. Conkling

Redkey

JCLA project

To the editor:

We are currently part of the class for the 2002-03 Jay County Leadership Academy. Being involved in the leadership academy enables us to strengthen our leadership skills by actively participating in training sessions and community projects.

Community projects have been delegated to sub groups of the leadership academy and must be completed by June.

Our group has decided to become involved with the Jay County Historical Museum. Persons on our team will volunteer five hours each of actual working time at the museum.

In addition to the actual work time, we are looking for any contributions you might be willing to make as follows:

•Money

•Old picture frames with glass

•A computer to be used for word processing

•Plate stands

•Historical documents (especially from the towns of Dunkirk, Redkey, Pennville and Bryant)

•Volunteering time, especially those with maintenance skills such as electrical, cleaning or repairs

Our volunteer team plans to present any money or items collected as part of our total project. We feel this project is very worthwhile and we are enjoying working with the historical society. The Jay County Historical Museum is a treasure in our county and one that may be overlooked, especially by our young people.

It is our hope that through our involvement we might also light a fire in other community members who might want to give some assistance. This museum will truly be a gift for generations to come.

Thank you,

Judy Hedges, Sam Racster,

Gyneth Augsburger

and Nancy Moser,

Jay County

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