I would like to thank the taxpayers of the town of Massena for their continued support during this period of transition for the Massena Memorial Hospital to a private, not-for-profit facility. This move will allow the hospital to become a viable health care facility for the future with St. Lawrence Health Systems.

Most of the community members that I’ve talked to realize that this result has encompassed many hours of collaborative work and negotiating during extra meetings. These sessions, outside of the regular meetings that both the town board and hospital board hold each month, were necessary to advance the process.

As has been reported in several media outlets, even with all of this progress during the extra meetings, the hospital nearly ran out of operating funds in August, which was averted due to a hastily called special meeting of both boards.

There have been a few cynics in our community that have complained about these meetings as being sneaky and underhanded. Every meeting met all of the legal standards and were approved by the town attorney. New York State, under the Open Meeting Law, recognizes that there is a need for municipalities to have extra meetings for extenuating circumstances and it is also recognized that there are specific exceptions to having meetings held in public.

Sue Bellor, a former hospital board member, refused to set up the necessary extra meetings with the town board and even encouraged other board members to boycott these sessions.

Bob Elsner, another critic, felt that all of the information and negotiating should have been done in public. I am not aware of any negotiations of town assets that have been done in public.

In every instance that I’m aware of, the town board works to obtain the best deal possible, then presented it to the taxpayers with the opportunity to vote their opinion in a referendum. If we had taken the path of either Bellor or Elsner, there would have been no progress and the hospital would already be closed.

As a community, we have much to be encouraged about - Massena is going to have a healthcare facility that will be reinvigorated and ready to serve our families for many years to come.

Steve O’Shaughnessy

Massena town supervisor