Hospital measure coming again soon

By Danielle Seckler

   At the Bear Valley Community Hospital board meeting held on June 23rd, the hospital board voted 4-0 to place the ballot initiative on the ballot in November. Dr. Fagan abstained from voting; stating that the board was not listening to the voters and placing the bond on the ballot will cost more money for the hospital. The hospital has lost two ballot measures held in June of 2007 and 2008, in their effort to get hospital earthquake retrofitted and upgrades to the skilled nursing facility, emergency room, and laboratory. The bond dollar amounts have come down from the first ballot initiative; however that did not get the ballot measure passed this time around. They need 66-percent to pass a bond measure and most recently they came within three fourths of 1-percent of passing Measure Q.

   During the discussion at the planning meeting before the board meeting, board member Carol Mulvihill asked it perhaps having only the mandatory earthquake retrofit on this bond measure and to later have the upgrades for the other facilities on a different bond measure. This was met with a resound “no” from Hospital CEO, Vi Colunga.

   Another issue that Dr. Fagan brought up was the cost to the hospital for placing a bond measure on the ballot. Measure B in June 2007 cost about $56,000 and according to the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters (ROV) actual costs for Measure Q to the hospital will only be known about 60 days after an election. Further, it is unlikely that it will cost less for the June and November 2008. This would make an estimated cost to the hospital to place the bond measure on the ballot about $165-175,000.

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