The position seeks an applicant who can dedicate time and energy, weather controversial decision-making, and survive tedious three-hour meetings on the nuances of health-care management — all for no pay.

Not exactly a glamorous job description, but civic duty rarely is, and luckily for Montezuma County voters there are six willing candidates vying for the chance to fill three such positions after the special-district hospital board election on May 2.

"We are obviously all here because we have the good of the public in mind, because for sure it is not for our own good to sit on this board," quipped hospital-board candidate Remigio Candelaria during a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters Wednesday.

The candidates, each running for a four-year term, are challengers Candelaria, Keith Domerese, Marvin Smith and Sheila Wilson, along with incumbents Rick Beisel and Lois Rutledge.

About 25 citizens listened to an hour-long question-and-answer session moderated by county Treasurer Bobbie Spore. A wide variety of topics relating to the future of health-care in the county was touched upon, including how mill-levy dollars collected by the district ($300,000 per year) should be spent; what the role of the Montezuma County Hospital District should be; the plausibility of starting a low-cost community clinic in the county along with what candidate priorities would be if elected.

Beisel and Candelaria blamed the ongoing bickering so often reported on, and forever fueled in the letters-to-the-editor page, for preventing progress. Both vowed to get beyond sticky contract negotiations now in the works with the Vista Grande nursing home management company so that other community health needs could take center stage.

"Before becoming embroiled in these other issues, we were in the process of figuring out what the community needs are and how we could help out. This was never completed and should be," Beisel said.

To accomplish positive change without raising taxes, Candelaria said he would seek donations from private companies and public entities to help fund education programs, or as a way to obtain new equipment.

"A creative board can do this; there are innovative ways to get what we need without raising taxes. Too much dependence is put on the mill-levy and bonds," he said.

Wilson warned of the importance of expanding or upgrading Southwest Memorial to meet care needs spurred on by expected growth in the county over the next four years. She suggested that because of the district’s assets, the board is in a better position than SHS to obtain bond-financing for improvements at Southwest.

"That hospital will need improvements and securing bonds through the district would be easier to do," Wilson said. "Also, we need more input from the doctors and the medical society on what they want for the hospital because they know how to make it better."

Regarding the topic of hospital expansion plans into the Vista Grande Nursing home, Smith questioned the wisdom of having administration offices take up valuable space that could be used for medical purposes in either facility while sensitive patient equipment sits in modulars in the parking lot.

"Per square foot, that space in the hospital is more expensive, and so it should be utilized for medical equipment, not for non-essential office space," Smith said. "For example the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is in a doublewide outside of the hospital. Patients have to be rolled across the parking to get to it."

Wilson vowed to protect taxpayer assets during the contract negotiations with Continuum (Vista Grande’s management company), especially regarding who would provide insurance if a new nursing home is built and whether a private physician would be granted an easement across public property during those negotiations.

Domerese remarked that more coordinated efforts between agencies and groups involved in health care locally would result in savings and increased efficiency in providing community care.

"There is no need to re-invent the wheel here; the (poor health) statistics in this area speak for themselves. We need to get back to providing basic care for the community. That means going into partnerships with other organizations that have similar goals and concerns as us," Domerese said.

Most candidates supported the idea of investigating the benefits of starting a low-cost, non-emergency health clinic in the county using mill-levy funds, but there were some reservations.

"I’d like to see the board move in that direction, but (a clinic) should be supported by a number of different organizations," said Rutledge, adding that the board is obligated by the county commission to retain $800,000 in reserve funds. "We have to wait to build it up some, and then establish goals on how to use it."