Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District

Measure W Parcel Tax - 2/3 Approval Required

Our local hospital has provided emergency care and other vital medical services in Southern Humboldt for nearly 70 years, but in spite of our community’s best efforts, our facility is now irredeemably obsolete, and its doors will be closed by the State of California by 2030.

If we are to continue to provide around-the-clock medical care for our citizens, we must build a new facility with an acute care hospital, emergency department, and the ancillary services such as radiology and laboratory that they require.  A stand-alone Emergency Room is not legal, and a 24/7 Urgent Care Clinic is neither able to provide the level of care required for emergency services nor financially viable in a community of our size.

To ensure that our new facility is ready when we need it, we must start now.  Interest rates and building costs are rising.  Designing, financing, building, and certifying a new hospital can take 10 years or more.

If we lost our hospital, it would cause an out-migration of young families and seniors, reducing property values, damaging our schools, and starving our local businesses.  A new facility would be of modest proportions, but it would provide state of the art medical services in a sustainable setting that could serve as a hub for a wide range of healthcare modalities for many decades to come.

Passing Measure W will enable us to build a hospital that will protect the health of our seniors while supporting and promoting a vibrant community for our children, our grandchildren, and you.

Join us in voting YES ON MEASURE W.  TOGETHER WE CAN BUILD IT!

s/Garth Epling

Garth Epling, Business Owner

s/Nancy R Wilson

Nancy R Wilson, Retired Health Administrator

s/Craig Parkinson

Craig Parkinson, Business Owner

s/Rio Anderson

Rio Anderson, Business Owner

Whereas, the hospital district finds it necessary to “Continue” and “Increase” the existing tax for “Another” 45, yes thats 45 more years. That will expire on June 30, 2065. They have been collecting “the Tax” since 1988.

In the year 2000 “the Tax” was $25.00 a parcel. Since then they, “The board” has raised it twice to its present $125.00. Now in 17 years they want to raise it to $170.00 per qualified parcel. In 40 years how many times will they ask to raise “the Tax”, and by how much? They will be back.

I know previous board members had and still have “Timber & Ag” exemptions. Must be nice to be able to exempt yourself.

If they have gotten out of the red then why do they need to raise your taxes. Oh, because they can.

This fiasco with buying the CR school is as far as I’m concerned, is illegal & I intend to file charges in Sacramento to the ethics & real estate boards & the attorney general. This deal between CR, School board, & hospital boards just isn’t right.

It would be cheaper to rebuild the old hospital in its present location & save millions.

Earthquake retro: Why? Why not get an exemption from congress (Waiver) to go ahead & rebuild but to have to have the same standards as a 6-8 story stucco bldg is insane.

Folks look at your tax bill.

CR tax

SHUSD tax

Fire district tax

Fire fee

Shelter Cove district fee

Hospital tax

All will go up as the greed will continue.

They will never expire!

s/ W.H. Scotty McClure

    328 Twin Trees Rd

    Garberville, CA 95542

Insert Fart smell here →_ W _ _ !!

Wm H “Scotty” McClure

s/Wm McClure

328 Twin Trees Rd

Garberville, CA.  95542

While the special tax has been in place, funding for rural hospitals has been shrinking as costs rise.  More than 630 communities lost their hospitals during this time.  Your hospital has been here throughout difficult times, improving along the way.  If we didn’t need a new hospital, the District could reduce the assessment, not raise it.

Would you really prefer to be an extra 50 miles away from emergency care when your child is bleeding, your partner suffers a heart attack, or you cannot breathe?

California healthcare district boards have five elected directors.  Dozens of your fellow citizens have volunteered time to serve on ours.  Every assessment enacted has been approved by two-thirds of the voters, just as Measure W must be.

If we rebuild where we are, how and where would we provide services during construction?

More and more elderly citizens need skilled nursing beds.  We already have a long waiting list.  Should we send our seniors to distant for-profit facilities more concerned about costs than care?

Disastrous damages to hospitals from the Northridge and Loma Prieta earthquakes led to California’s current seismic laws.  Garberville sits on a field of earthquake fault lines close to one of the world’s largest subduction faults.

Our single-story wood-framed hospital is not likely to collapse, but it wouldn’t take much damage to close it.

We’re voting Yes On Measure W so we can build a modern, sound facility that will be here to care for us all when we need it most.

s/Donna King

Donna King, Massage Therapist

s/Shirley Gray

Shirley Gray, Hospice Counselor

s/Shanon Taliaferro

Shanon Taliaferro, Briceland Fire Board President

s/Doug Bryan

Doug Bryan, CEO

s/Evelyn King

Evelyn King, Retired Healy Senior Center Director