Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
The Goldendale City Council heard a surprising number at their meeting last night. Police Chief Mike Smith told the council that cameras operating on the three main entrances to Goldendale had been up and running for 24 day, and asked them to guess how many cars entered Goldendale in those 24 days. The total surprised everyone:
“There were 140,000 that entered and left the city. The total vehicles that weren’t repeaters were 94,309 vehicles.”
That’s a lot of unique vehicles in not even a full month.
But the largest amount of time at the meeting was devoted to a number of people who came to protest Klickitat Valley Health not renewing the contract of a popular family medicine doctor. Here’s a compilation of some of the comments:
“I am extremely sad to have lost a true professional MD at our hospital here/Dr. Rachel Sonne/She saved my life/Best doctor we have ever found in 25 years of life/She’s helped me quit smoking. She’s helped me just get my life back on track/No matter what they say, it’s because the time she spent with us. Any kind of management situation doesn’t want their doctor to spend time with their patients like that. They want the quantity. Well, I’m here to tell you we want the quality.”
Though councilors have no jurisdiction over the management of the hospital, the protesting patients wanted to use every possible venue to get their message out.