Hospital forum this Thursday

CHELAN - Fireworks might be banned in Chelan County, but there are bound to be some from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, at the Hospital forum at the Chelan High School Performing Arts Center as the Hospital Vote Yes committee squares off in a public forum with the Hospital Vote No Committee. 

Representing the Vote Yes side will be Guy Evans, Keri Bergeson, MD, Megan Guffey, MD and Ty Witt, MD. 

Mike Sherer will be the lone spokesman for the Vote No side unless the group decides to add more at their meeting on Wednesday, March 29. 

A moderator - who has not been confirmed as of Monday, March 27 - will help facilitate questions and guide the hour and a half debate. 

Similar to a political town hall meeting, members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask direct questions to either side of the panel. 

“What ever questions come out of the audience, we will address,” Witt described of the forum. “It is in order to address some of the differences between the oppositions’ numbers and ours. We might also talk about something from residency, future care the affordability of the project, the effect on the local economy, the growing demographic of Chelan Valley and the options and alternatives that have already been discussed.” 

Although the meeting is sure to be packed, Witt said that he hopes people who are either on the fence or need more information will attend. 

Sherer plans to give the message he has been giving for months; “this community and the hospital cannot afford the proposed new hospital,” Sherer confidently stated.  “(And) I will have the facts and figures to prove it.”

Aside from afford-ability, the one of the premises of the opposition group is that the bond has already been voted down two times before, illustrating that the people have spoken. 

However, the last two votes were shot down by a slim two percent.  

“So by far the majority was in favor (of the new hospital). That is why we have kept on this process, we just have to push it over the top,” Witt stated emphatically. “If the vote had came in at just 40 percent yes and 60 percent no, then the majority have spoken, but when you get the majority voting yes (58 percent) then it is just about getting people more informed.” 

Witt and the Vote Yes division are confident that have done just that this time around since they have gone out and spoke to various groups throughout the process which began around September 2016. 

Of course, they won’t know for sure until after the votes are cast on April 25. 

Zach Johnson can be reached at lcmeditor@gmail.com or (509) 682-2213