Letters to the Editor 4-9-15

Pungent disarray
We are all free to believe what we want. Here are a few things that I believe:
The Windsor brand is important. I know people who have spent their lives building it; When your brand is tarnished in a regional newspaper your grandchildren’s grandchildren will find it online; There is a small group of pro-growth people who care deeply about safety services, town values and our environment and have expressed their views to council concerning future residential development in Bell Village; That unless you are a former Harvard Law professor and senator you should not be spending $2 per resident on a town council seat. President Obama’s campaign cost under $3 per U.S. resident; That a business partner should not be intransigent or arrogant, especially if is because of undue influence; That the town manager system is the best!

Even though it is messy and may smell bad, democracy is good. When elected officials listen to their constituents – it is the best!
Lynn J. Reiter
Windsor
Renters and tourism
Editor: It seems that Judith Merchant Nied (letter in the April 2 edition of the Windsor Times ) is in a terrible snit because  the Town Council may vote to add an additional 750 “mostly apartments and mostly rentals” to the city. She thinks it will just ruin our “unique and special” town to bring in renters who, as she says, “do not have an investment in their communities” and that those 750 nasty renters may keep Windsor from becoming a tourist destination like Healdsburg or Yountville, or Calistoga.
When I lived and worked in Healdsburg in the early 90s, it was still lovely to stroll downtown, talk with the people you knew and relax on a bench in the plaza. Now the plaza is a noisy place with a constant flow of cars and tourists who act as if they own the town, which I guess they kind of do.
In Ms. Nied’s description, “They (tourists) come, spend money, and leave with no impact on the infrastructure …” What? No impact? Does no one in the restaurants and hotels use water, electricity, the roads or the facilities? “They leave after spending their vacation money on restaurants hotels and shopping. The cities benefit immensely,” she notes.
Ms. Nied has claimed that people who rent their homes do not have an investment in their communities, even though they live, work and send their kids to the schools in their community and she wants more touris­ts because they only come to consume on their vacations and then leave. Is that to say that tourists have a better investment in the community? It is true that businesses thrive from tourist money in Healdsburg or Yountville, but what about those who stroll and do not buy? Are we welcome too? According to Ms. Nied, if you are strolling on the Town Green in Windsor and “are not looking for places to spend your money …” – you are not welcome in this town, buddy.
I have one word for Ms. Nied – community! Windsor has a great community. There is the library happily bustling with folk of every ilk, the hearty Community Garden, the extraordinary Windsor Service Alliance, the alive and well Art Council, the innovative businesses, the schools, the churches and the parks – just to name a few things that do not exclude the time, energy and heart of renters.  But if we are to believe Ms. Nied’s lament, renters will “ … more than likely be shopping at Lowes, Costco, and Walmart” and thus, she claims, not be contributing anything worthwhile to the community! How insulting to the people of the town to be shoved to the back of the bus if you rent and do not own in Windsor. Shame on you, Ms. Nied.  
Sonoma County, including Windsor, is not “unique and special” because of tourists, but because of the people who live here every day, working, playing, retiring, creating and most of all, living lives that value their fellow human beings. If the project goes through then it’s up to Windsor to set out the welcome mat and find ways to engage with the newest members of the community.
Miriam Ginden
Larkfield
Another hospital perspective
Editor: As a fellow employee and team member of Healdsburg District Hospital, I was saddened by the article  (Nurses protest lack of pay parity, April 2, 2015) in regards to the comments quoted by some of our employees.
I am not on the management team and I am not a nurse, but in my position with this wonderful hospital, my duties place me in many of the departments throughout Healdsburg District Hospital.
I found the twist on this article to not be a true picture of who we really are as a whole, that would include all employees, and not just a single department primarily on a single unit. We knew when signing on as employees in these past few years that there would be many changes in the near future, some in making difficult decisions in order to keep us healthy, strong and financially viable within our community.
The morale, hospital wide, is not any different than any other workplace in our community. We are a team, we do support one another, our patients most certainly are the priority for every single one of us here, there is laughter and happiness in our hallways, we receive letters monthly from patients telling us how amazing we are.
The upper level management supports us completely, from encouraging staff potlucks that draw over 150 employees almost monthly, recognition awards on a monthly basis, regular employee forums that allow us to speak our minds without reprisal, to our upper level management team who have a definite open door policy with us – the list goes on and on and on.
Every hospital in every state has their issues, think of the strikes thrown, think of the walk outs, the dynamics may be a little different but the complaints and spin are generally the same no matter where you go.
I, for one, am a proud “team” member of this hospital and know that we as a team – from upper level management down to the basic employee – are doing our best to help our community trust and believe in every effort we make.
If you do seek medical attention, we are the place to be, because we provide excellent patient care, we treat our patients as we would our own families, we care about one another from top level to bottom level and we are a happy, thriving hospital that has beat the odds.
Our board made the right decision to bring in outside consultants to assist us in becoming financially viable once again and it has been successful because our paychecks clear every pay period.
To my community, I have lived here my entire life, am a proud member of Sonoma County and know that I could not have picked a better hospital to have become a team member of.
Each and every one of us has an opinion and I felt it was important to add mine to the mix.
 
Cynthia Conners,
Activity Coordinator
Healdsburg District Hospital