With the health center in time of crisis, it’s tempting to look around at our other community assets — a beautiful new high school; a capacious, modern fire station; a new, expanded library; extensive new athletic fields; a grand new arts center — and wonder how we, as a community, could let the health clinic, probably our most vital facility, sink so low.

Of the five assets listed above, taxes funded four, and the arts center found financial support from a passionate, well-heeled constituency.

The health center gets no help from taxation; Its constituency consists of, basically, ill people who are in need of care. It’s a small wonder that we’ve been content to let big, outside organizations take the wheel. But now that the Franciscans, have dumped us with a mean three months’ warning, we’re just about back to the point when Granny’s Attic was the clinic’s major funding source — on our own.

There are hopeful signs. The Sunrise Ridge board and the clinic’s exceptional, committed physicians and other employees, with help from our representatives in government (Sharon Nelson and Eileen Cody, among others), may be finding a solution. As this scenario plays out, we, as a community, should stand ready to step up and support it with the same whole-heartedness and generosity we’ve applied elsewhere.

— Richard Bard