LETTER: County should listen to voters

To the Editor:

After reading the article regarding the fate of the Health Center in the July 12th edition of the News, I decided I needed to send my first letter to the editor.

When it came time to find a nursing home for my mother, I went to several facilities in the area and after weighing the pros and cons of the facilities, I chose the Health Center for Mom’s new home. Mom has been a resident for almost three years at the Health Center and I have never regretted my decision to place her there.

The care is excellent, there are many activities to help stimulate her mind, and most importantly, she loves it there.

I don’t understand why, if you don’t like the results of an election, the officials simply “back door” to get what they want, case in point, the residents of St. Croix County have voted twice to keep the Health Center open, the ballots had just been counted in the last election when the committee decided to cut the occupancy to 50 beds, when their stats showed they averaged 62 residents and could make a profit at this level of occupancy.

With only a 50 bed facility their hands are tied with no room for short-term rehab residents, which will help a facility to earn revenue.

I think it is time for our county leaders to listen to the voters and work with the Health Center to generate revenue instead of working against them and trying to close the facility.

Sonja Monner

Somerset

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion