Supervisor Mike Wasserman and the Councils must work to save Saint Louise Hospital
Dear Editor,
After having spent five hours in the emergency room on Thursday night, I couldn’t help but think about the loss of St. Louise Regional Hospital. I empathized with the waiting mothers cradling crying children and wondered about them having to drive 30 miles to the closest hospital.
I felt concern for the many employees who gave comprehensive, patient, reassuring care with an innate calm, even though it was a chaotic evening. Would selling the hospital force hundreds of staff into a life-changing decision?
I recalled being told a couple of weeks ago that our granddaughter had to go to urgent care, a challenge with a 3-year-old. Apparently, one facility will not see children younger than seven and the other choice has peculiar hours, open 2 to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. What if the diagnosis was more serious and urgent care is not an option?
There will be lives lost if this local hospital closes!
We are talking about the elderly, stroke/heart attack victims, machinery mishaps, gunshot/knife wounds, allergies resulting in anaphylaxis and so much more. Think about the fact there would no longer be a life-flight helicopter close at hand for trauma cases.
To quote a cliche, “time is of the essence.” I have no doubt my one-hour wait to be triaged and three-hour delay to see a doctor would have increased dramatically considering the multitudes seen at the county hospital.
I pondered the possibilities of keeping this local facility and implore council members of Morgan Hill and Gilroy to work with Mike Wasserman to find the means to accommodate the health concerns of South County residents.
Susan Mister, Gilroy
The Golden Quill is awarded occasionally for a well-conceived letter.
Really? ‘The people are just waiting in line to hand more money over to the city?’
Dear Editor,
The City Council is obviously trying to save face for their blunder in attempting a doomed “quality of life” tax hike.
According to the latest results of their “study” (by a consulting firm whom they paid to tell them what they want to hear), the people just can’t wait to give them more money. The first report said the respondents favored a property tax hike, but according to the Feb. 14 article, the sales tax hike had more support. Which one was it? Maybe it’s both; maybe each one has more support than the other, and the people are right there, standing in three-hour lines, just to throw more money into the public pit. Oh yeah, that’s the DMV.
The recent diversion to hike taxes for the protection racket known as “public safety” (to which 68% of the City’s expenses already go while the mayor says, “There’s no money for firemen or police”!) was a not-so-clever way to kill the measure and save face.
They recently passed yet more laws – we can’t even drink a beer at a park any more without buying some silly permit. (See the trend – give them more money!) They pass more stupid laws for the bloated police department to enforce, and then they come asking for money to fund said harassment.
How about we get rid of all such laws (victimless crimes) and downsize the police department 75%? Then we’ll have the money for sidewalks (and even more studies to tell the Council what they want to hear).
Every two years, out of the revolving door of public entities – the library, the schools, the county, the state, the parks, the city – belches another lie to creatively con us into paying more tax. And if we’re dumb enough to approve it, the next one emitted will ask for even more.
The only way they can get it to pass is to call it “temporary” (lie), and then when it’s about to expire, tell us with scripted sob stories that the sky will fall if it’s not renewed.
Remember the County’s Measures A and B, supposedly for road improvements? Within one year, most of those funds were diverted to fund the VTA (worthless money pit bus system). The county’s “fee” for registered vehicles is now up to $20. For what, roads like the number three lane on northbound U.S 101, to see how deep potholes can get?
Bottom line: If you get a questionnaire or a phone call asking you where you want additional money to be spent, say “none of the above.” If you pick anything on their little list, it will do nothing but fuel the City Council’s fire and said panhandlers will use it against us to try and pass yet another tax hike that will never go away.
Alan Viarengo, Gilroy
