I was felling trees and cutting firewood over the Thanksgiving weekend. I can’t put my finger on it, but for some reason, climbing trees and using a chainsaw makes me think of how lucky we are to have a quality local hospital. Then I started thinking about some of the articles and letters I have read over the months about whether Greenwood Township should join the Cook-Orr Hospital District.

I live in Linden Grove Township and am proud that we are part of the hospital district and that our tax dollars support the Cook Hospital. Nobody likes paying taxes or needless spending, but supporting a hospital is neither frivolous nor wasteful. Linden Grove residents and the other residents of the hospital district are investing in saving lives and the economic vitality of the entire region.

While the hospital charges fees for medical services, the hospital district’s levy is critically important as well. That is what allows us to have a quality hospital and nursing home in a sparsely populated rural area. We all pull together to share the cost of keeping the doors open. The costs of operating a hospital are constant, whether the emergency room is full or empty.

It costs the Cook Hospital a great deal to have knowledgeable and trained staff available at all times, to maintain facilities, to have up-to-date medical equipment and to have the capability to transport the critically injured to other hospitals when need be. Tax revenue helps pay these bills so there is a hospital on the day a family member, a grandchild, friend or neighbor needs that emergency room to save his or her life. The time to invest in the hospital is not the day you need it, because hospitals do not appear by magic, but through hard work and, yes, our tax dollars.

The Cook Hospital not only pays dividends in the form of critical care, but as an important part of the economy of our region. The Cook Hospital and Nursing Home have 130 employees, including 100 people who are employed full-time. Obviously, all of these folks pay taxes and fuel local economic growth through their spending. In addition, the hospital and nursing home purchase supplies locally. Just by operating and existing, the Cook Hospital adds to our regional economy, which itself contributes to and shares the burden of the services we all receive from public and private enterprises operating in the region.

I was encouraged to read that the Greenwood Township Board understands that the hospital district is important, and its residents have acknowledged using the hospital. That is not surprising, because many in Greenwood Township live no further from the hospital than residents of Linden Grove or Crane Lake. When somebody is hurt on Lake Vermilion, the first stop is the Cook Hospital. No matter where you live, on the lake or in the country we can all agree that there is value in the existence of a hospital emergency room to save the life of a child injured in a boating accident. The value of a hospital is not measured the day you get your tax bill, but the day that you have a heart attack at your hunting shack and are rushed to the emergency room that is open only because of the levy collectively paid by your neighbors with everyone paying their fair share.

The board members of Greenwood Township have indicated on occasion that they do not want to unilaterally impose membership in the hospital district on residents. That is why the Legislature wrote the law the way it did. The process for joining a hospital district begins with an affirmative vote of the township board. The board’s vote to join the district triggers the voters’ right to weigh-in through a referendum. The town board’s decision only takes effect if the voters decline a referendum or vote to approve the proposal.

A hospital does not exist for free as one letter to the editor recently suggested. Fees collected for service typically do not cover the expense of care received at a rural hospital. The shared tax burden keeps our hospital afloat. Many Greenwood residents understand the imperative of keeping the Cook Hospital and Nursing Home open and strong. However, to truly know how the majority of Greenwood residents feel, the Greenwood Board should vote to join the district. Faced with this choice, many Greenwood residents would approve of sharing the burden of a critical community service like the other townships in the area.

Kelly R. Dahl

Linden Grove, Minn.