Editor:
Open letter to Mayor Strimbold and councillors
Re: Hospital operating room
We need an equipped operating room in our new hospital to eventually attract physicians here.
I believe the $960,000 from Comfor to the village would be a good start towards the proceeds needed, however the balance will not likely be raised without a referendum.
My proposal would be to have the regional hospital district estimate the cost of equipping the operating room, then go to the municipal finance authority for the balance needed. The municipal finance authority will issue debentures and sell them in order to provide us with the money. We then can pay off municipal finance authority over 10 or so years on our residential taxes.
This referendum should include the village residences, as well as Areas E, B, and G (Topley, Granisle), plus others if the Regional District think that is feasible.
We need someone to spearhead this. I don' intend to, because of my aging years, however I am willing to help. This needs to be in place for this November's election.
This situation is very similar to the Pines care home situation when originally built. The government said we only needed 30 rooms - we said 38. They refused to build more than 30 so we raised enough money to build 35 rooms. The government of the day refused to fund the opening of the remaining five rooms for almost three years, leaving them empty just to chastise us. However in time, they did fund them and you know the rest of the story. Let's go Lakes District.
Yours truly,
Gordon McFee
