Editorial

Colthurst appreciation

Home for the holidays

As the Board of Directors of North Sonoma County Healthcare District and Chief Executive Officer we thank Healdsburg Tribune publisher, Rollie Atkinson, for his recent timely editorial (“Our hospital’s crystal ball,” Sept. 11, 2014). The editorial does a very good job of describing many of the obstacles facing small community hospitals in Sonoma County, such as our own Healdsburg District Hospital, as they struggle to adapt to these conditions and overcome their detrimental effect. Some hospitals will not make it: witness the recent closure of Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastapol. But we believe it can be done and we are committed to that outcome in our community.

I am a local who has been visiting and shopping downtown since 1990. The current parking dilemma has arisen because of the past political marriage between downtown business and local politicians. In an effort to promote growth and accumulate revenue, Healdsburg has incorporated the in-lieu parking fee concept, which although is good for developers, it has failed the local property owning taxpayer.

Water fluoridation

The response letters in the Healdsburg Tribune’s “Letters to the Editor” to Dave Henderson and my letters criticizing Gary Plass for not endorsing a ban on assault weapons made me realize that although there are many people who agree with our opinion there are also plenty who don’t. It was interesting to see the various views on the same subject. Most of us here in Sonoma County are liberals - mostly center-left but liberals just the same. Although we are technically part of the Bay Area we are still a rather rural community which is traditionally conservative. The divergent opinions have led to a healthy discourse which is one of the things that make our American way of life, as Vladimir Putin put it, “exceptional.”

Water worries