Re-elect Burgstahler to hospital district board

An important election for our community is underway. I’d like to encourage local residents to re-elect Dr. Scott Burgstahler to the Pend Oreille Hospital District board. He has been serving as a trustee since 2012. Anyone in this community who has had an elderly family member stay at Lifecare in Sandpoint knows of Dr. Burgstahler’s kind, professional care. Trustees receive no salary for serving on the board.

The hospital district board appropriates funds from property tax revenue to facilitate our community’s clinics for mental health and women’s health and Bonner General Health. The rate of tax is low at .000222638, which for my husband and I personally amounted to $15.28 per year. As a point of comparison, our tax was double this amount for our wonderful library. We consider both valuable for our community.

The opponent, who has no medical expertise, is Spencer Hutchings, a local gun dealer with a business slogan, “concealed carry keeps the wolves at bay.” He received an endorsement on Redoubt News from Dan Rose, who has a well-documented adversarial relationship with the board and its chair, Dr. Tom Lawrence. It is highly suspect that Hutchings’ desire to be elected would be to boost Rose’s stated agenda “to confront socialism” (Spokesman-Review interview, Feb. 7, 2019). Hutchings has been very confrontational toward me on several occasions.

Please vote Burgstahler for trustee. It’s important we maintain sensible professionalism for our health services. Early voting is through May 17 in Federal Building, Highway 2 and Division Ave.; 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Friday. Election day at precinct locations is Tuesday, May 21.

REBECCA HOLLAND

Sandpoint