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NCCH incumbents re-elected to board
By AINSLEE S. WITTIG/Arizona Range News
About four out of every 100 registered voters in the Northern Cochise Hospital District cast ballots Tuesday, March 8, deciding two seats on the district board of directors.
Only 206 out of 5,644 registered voters cast ballots at the district's three polling places, including the Willcox, Bowie and Pearce/Cochise/Sunizona areas.
Unofficial Cochise County elections results indicated Wednesday morning that incumbents Pat L. Stark and Richard E. Singer, M.D., were easily re-elected, receiving 34.62 and 34.36 percent of the votes, respectively.
Stark received 135 votes and Singer, 134 votes.
Gail Size-Santopadre received 83 votes or 21.28 percent; and Howard Conner received 38 votes, 9.74 percent.
Chris Cronberg, chief executive officer of the Northern Cochise Community Hospital, said he believes the results are indicative of a general feeling that the hospital has "been on a good course."
"Most things we do are positive and (voters believe) the people who've been here will continue that," he said.
He also said that name recognition could play, especially for Size-Santopadre, as she is new to the area. "And it's Howard (Conner's) first time out in the public arena. It's hard to get elected the first time out," he said.
Singer said Friday that in his next four-year term, he'd like to "maintain fiscal integrity of the institution and to meet the needs of the public we serve."
"As a board member, I'd like to develop a strategic plan to see us into the next several years, and stay on the edge of rural medicine. We need to continue the high standard of care that the hospital and medical staff provides," he said.
Stark said Friday that the board is in the process of updating the strategic plan. "I'd like to see the hospital as a medical center, rather than just a hospital. We have a large and growing outpatient business, with a lot of physicians coming in on a regular basis."
"Through surveys and research on the community, I'd like to see what people would like us to do more than we do now - what other services the hospital might provide," she said.
"Work on the board is very gratifying. We're doing well. We've come over the hump - we're in much better financial position than we were 10 years ago. I appreciated the district's confidence in me," Stark said.
With only 3.65 percent of the voters in the district casting ballots, Cronberg said this is the "lowest election turnout we've had. Usually we get 480 to 500 voters."
"It's hard to get people in to vote for a non-general election to vote - especially for a non-controversial issue. I imagine we'll have a serious discussion soon to determine what we'll do. We've talked a bout a mail ballot, but we've got 5,800 people in the district and at $2.40 or $2.50 a ballot, that's very expensive. Our other option is to move to the general election," he said.
"The county wouldn't let me on the ballot back when it was a punch card and there wasn't enough room on the card. Now, I don't think there's a problem getting on it, but we'll have to shorten or lengthen somebody's term, because it expires in March. We'd probably lengthen it to November," Cronberg said.
Only 206 out of 5,644 registered voters cast ballots at the district's three polling places, including the Willcox, Bowie and Pearce/Cochise/Sunizona areas.
Unofficial Cochise County elections results indicated Wednesday morning that incumbents Pat L. Stark and Richard E. Singer, M.D., were easily re-elected, receiving 34.62 and 34.36 percent of the votes, respectively.
Stark received 135 votes and Singer, 134 votes.
Gail Size-Santopadre received 83 votes or 21.28 percent; and Howard Conner received 38 votes, 9.74 percent.
Chris Cronberg, chief executive officer of the Northern Cochise Community Hospital, said he believes the results are indicative of a general feeling that the hospital has "been on a good course."
"Most things we do are positive and (voters believe) the people who've been here will continue that," he said.
He also said that name recognition could play, especially for Size-Santopadre, as she is new to the area. "And it's Howard (Conner's) first time out in the public arena. It's hard to get elected the first time out," he said.
Singer said Friday that in his next four-year term, he'd like to "maintain fiscal integrity of the institution and to meet the needs of the public we serve."
"As a board member, I'd like to develop a strategic plan to see us into the next several years, and stay on the edge of rural medicine. We need to continue the high standard of care that the hospital and medical staff provides," he said.
Stark said Friday that the board is in the process of updating the strategic plan. "I'd like to see the hospital as a medical center, rather than just a hospital. We have a large and growing outpatient business, with a lot of physicians coming in on a regular basis."
"Through surveys and research on the community, I'd like to see what people would like us to do more than we do now - what other services the hospital might provide," she said.
"Work on the board is very gratifying. We're doing well. We've come over the hump - we're in much better financial position than we were 10 years ago. I appreciated the district's confidence in me," Stark said.
With only 3.65 percent of the voters in the district casting ballots, Cronberg said this is the "lowest election turnout we've had. Usually we get 480 to 500 voters."
"It's hard to get people in to vote for a non-general election to vote - especially for a non-controversial issue. I imagine we'll have a serious discussion soon to determine what we'll do. We've talked a bout a mail ballot, but we've got 5,800 people in the district and at $2.40 or $2.50 a ballot, that's very expensive. Our other option is to move to the general election," he said.
"The county wouldn't let me on the ballot back when it was a punch card and there wasn't enough room on the card. Now, I don't think there's a problem getting on it, but we'll have to shorten or lengthen somebody's term, because it expires in March. We'd probably lengthen it to November," Cronberg said.
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