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Show Garfield County 2000 Year-End Update As the year comes to a close, we would like to bring the citizens of Garfield County a brief update on some important issues in the county. First, the hospital. Garfield County took ownership of the hospital hos-pital from IHC in July. This includes in-cludes all the clinics, the extended care center and the hospital. IHC has also deposited funds to operate the hospital for the remainder of the year. A new governing board has been appointed with members from each geographical area in the county. The new board members are Maloy Dodds, John Houston, Janet Oldham, Linda Mansell, Louise Liston, Ken Piatt, Ron Hatch and Earl Slack. A board member will be named to represent Piute county sometime in the future. fu-ture. If you have concerns regarding regard-ing the hospital, feel free to contact one of the board members. There have' been some staff changes and improvements at the hospital. There are three physicians on staff: Dr. Birch, Dr. Mooney, and Dr. Shurtliff; and two physician assistants: Becky Roberts and Bob McCullough. A nurse anethesthe-tist anethesthe-tist has been hired and will start work around January 15, 2001. This means that we will be able to deliver babies at the hospital again. We also have a nurse midwife, DeAnn Brown. We urge expectant mothers in the county to take advantage ad-vantage of this service. A CAT scan is being installed at the hospital hospi-tal and will be ready for service very soon. With the use of computer technology, these scans can be read by specialists at other facililties. A former patient has made a generous donation that has given the hospital the capability to do laparoscopic surgery. We hope to have surgeons come to our hospital to perform surgeries, alleviating the need to travel out of the area. We are trying to make Garfield Memorial Hospital a full service hospital that can take care of most of the medical needs of the citizens of the county. We encourage you to use this facility. Your tax dollars dol-lars are being used to provide these service to the residents of the county. Again, we welcome your ideas and suggestions to help us make the best rural hospital in the country. (See LETTERS on page 3-A) LETTERS From Page 2-A The new public safety facility opened in February. At the present time, it employs 19 people, with several additional people employed by the school district. At the present pres-ent time, we are housing 91 state inmates, as well as several county inmates. The state pays $43.07 per day for state inmates, which we anticipate will cover the cost of the operation of the jail. In the past, there has been an approximate contribution con-tribution of $250,000 from the county general fund to finance the operation of the jail. The commission commis-sion wants to express their appreciation appre-ciation to Sheriff Cooper and Jail Commander Mel Miller for the great job they are doing at the new facility. '. In partnership with Panguitch City, we are in the construction phase of a new multi-purpose center. cen-ter. The new facility will have an indoor arena and a conference center that will accommodate 300 people. The facility is scheduled to be completed com-pleted in April or May of 2001. Garfield County is operating in the black and has built up a comfortable com-fortable surplus. That accomplishment accom-plishment is largely due to competent compe-tent and dedicated employees that have saved the county far more of your tax dollars than we can say. As a result, we have completed the proposed budget for 2001 calendar year, we were able to give county employees a cost of living adjustment adjust-ment as well as a year-end appreciation apprecia-tion bonus. We appreciate the support of the citizens of Garfield County and wish you all a very Merry Christmas Christ-mas and Happy New Year. Garfield County Commissioners Louise Liston, Chair D. Maloy Dodds Clare Ramsay |