City, CCHS should find happy medium

There will be an interesting—and perhaps future-altering—vote taken at this coming Monday’s meeting of the Custer City Council. It’s not a stretch to say the future of many infrastructure projects in the city, as well as the future of healthcare in the city, are at stake when the votes are cast by the six members of the council.

The council members are in a precarious and unenviable position. On one hand, you have the city running on a budget deficit, with projections next year showing another revenue shortfall. On the other hand, you have Custer Regional Hospital and Custer Clinic, two important facilities in town that virtually everyone who lives here has used at one point in time. In order to continue to attract quality physicians and keep up with modern technology, Custer Community Health Services, Inc., (CCHS) board members, as well as Regional Health Network  officials, say a continued subsidy from the city to the tune of $300,000 is needed.

When the city is running in the red, $300,000 is a lot of money that could fund a lot of projects. As recently as a month ago, the city had to rebuild a chip seal project within the city because it couldn’t afford the bids that came back for the project. Suffice it to say that $300,000 would help fund many projects in town. A lot of the streets in Custer are in disrepair.