Clarification from PMC medical providers
Dear Editor:
I am writing to provide some transparency and context into why the doctors and APPs in Meeker came together to endorse candidates, as well as give my own personal endorsement for those same candidates for the PMC Board Election. First off, I wanted to make clear exactly who the Medical Providers of Meeker are. With permission, the letter last week was jointly written and represented myself (Dr. Travis Anderson) as well as Dr. Kevin Borchard, Dr. Justin Grant, Dr. Kellie Turner, Dr. Karen Frye, Dr. Elizabeth Ross, Dr. Alex Sielatycki, Dr. Rhett Griggs, Andrea Hazelton NP, Rosaly Coombs NP, and Alisha Johansson PA. This is a group of individuals that I am both proud as well as humbled to be a part of. I felt it was important to list the individuals involved as we had no intention of hiding behind anonymity.
I recognize that it is not the norm for us to come together to endorse candidates. I have been living and practicing in Meeker for the past eight years and have not felt the need to do this before. This decision was not made lightly, and I hope that the community understands the intentionality in us doing so now.
During these past eight years, including two years as the Chief of the Medical Staff, I saw amazing boards filled with selfless individuals who gave of their time and put a lot of effort into these positions. Incredible success was seen by the medical staff, administration, and the board working united to help achieve our goals for the health of the community. For the most part, I feel that we succeeded. In a time when many rural hospitals are struggling and closing, we have been able to expand services, take amazing care of our patients, maintain financial reserves, and expand options and services to our community that, quite frankly, are not typical in rural communities.
Unfortunately I have also seen the impact when the board is not united. Important decisions needed to move forward stall, morale suffers, costs escalate, and anxiety has increased regarding our ability to carry forward our vision of taking care of our community. For these and other reasons, we felt it was important enough to endorse candidates.
I want to personally thank all the candidates who are running for the board positions. It is a volunteer, unpaid and oftentimes thankless position. My endorsements should not be construed as anything negative towards an individual, but rather who I feel strongly would be most qualified. This comes from 15+ years of experience working in medical facilities and are echoed by those who also wrote our position paper last week.
I think that the one year position has good options, and I am endorsing Dr. Albert Krueger mainly because of his vast experience with medicine, working with hospital administration, as well as being a pioneer in establishing relationship-based medicine here in Meeker. Continuing this mentality with the board is an important goal for the providers.
For the three year position I strongly and wholeheartedly endorse Danette Coulter. She comes into this candidacy with a significant amount of background in hospital finance, which is a main role for the board. Despite this, she expressed to me a humility to continue to study and learn how she can help the hospital. My interaction with her was incredibly refreshing, and I walked away with an absolute certainty that she was the one for that job.
I would like to emphasize once again to the community the significance of us providers coming together to endorse candidates. Moving forward with the right board we can continue to meet the health needs here in Meeker.
Travis Anderson
Meeker
FUNdraising Games scheduled
Dear Editor:
Thank you to everyone who offered encouragement after reading about my candidacy for the Eastern Rio Blanco County Health Service District, which oversees Pioneers Medical Center, in last week’s newspaper. Mail ballots for the May 5, 2026, special election have been mailed, and I would appreciate your vote.
After reading my opponent’s responses and her more than 20 years of experience with Pioneers Medical Center, many may consider me the underdog. That’s fine — it means I will work harder to earn your support and pull off an upset on Cinco de Mayo.
I ask for your vote and encourage you to consider how my experience working for my hometown newspaper and as a business owner for the past 17 years could benefit Pioneers Medical Center. During that time, I’ve built strong relationships with local businesses and organizations.
I also invite the community to participate in the first Wendll’s White River Roasters FUNdraising Games, which will raise money for the Meeker High School Activities Fund. The event reflects my focus on collaboration, communication and community involvement.
To promote Meeker air-roasted coffee and support community health, we created 10 challenges with divisions for boys and girls in grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 and adults. Signup and practice will be held Saturday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to noon at Bob King Track at Starbuck Stadium, ahead of the Games on May 8 from 10 a.m. to noon.
Fundraising has always been part of our roasting business, but we wanted to create something simple and accessible for schools and clubs. Following the KISS (Keep It Super Simple) principle, we designed challenges that require minimal equipment and are fun, healthy and competitive. Funds will be raised through entry fees and coffee sales, with proceeds benefiting Meeker High School.
Our goal is to create an event that other schools and organizations can easily replicate for their own fundraising efforts, but it needed to be tested locally first.
This effort required broad community collaboration. We initially planned to host the event last August but postponed it due to the Elk and Lee wildfires. Early partners included the Rio Blanco County Fairgrounds and MSG Ready Mix.
This spring, I worked with Meeker High School Activities Director Klark Kindler, donated $1,000 and secured the venue. Student-athletes and coaches will help run the event, and Kindler will serve as field director and emcee.
Additional collaborators include graphic designer Madi Ducey of Social Media Madi; Lindsey Romansky of Phoenix Rehab Co., who will lead warmups; Deloy Cook of Home.Made, providing commemorative T-shirts; Shelly Rogers of ERBM Recreation and Park District; and Sara Stephenson of the Meeker Chamber of Commerce, who helped arrange Chamber Bucks as prizes.
Local businesses also supported the event through advertising, helping cover costs and prizes.
I’m grateful for the relationships and collaboration that made this effort possible, and I hope to bring that same approach to the special district board.
Please consider signing up for the FUNdraising Games this Saturday at Bob King Track at Starbuck Stadium.
Thank you for your support.
Sincerely,
Bobby Gutierrez
Meeker
Library board comments inform voter’s decision
Dear Editor:
Many of us have watched something take root in Meeker that is dividing our community in ways we haven’t seen before. It began a few years ago, and I believe it traces back to the group that loudly opposed a book in the Meeker Library during public comment at a library board meeting. The board listened to everyone and ultimately moved the book to the adult section. A reasonable solution. But it quickly became clear the book wasn’t the real issue. It was a pretext — an opening to upend the library board and, ultimately, an opportunity for the Board of County Commissioners to appoint two individuals who, in my view, are pursuing personal agendas rather than serving the Meeker Library District in a fair, community-minded way.
Since then, monthly library board meetings have drawn 10 to 20 or more concerned citizens who witness the antagonism and dysfunction firsthand. More than a dozen exceptionally qualified people applied for the recent library board vacancy seeking to restore normalcy and respect. Yet the commissioners reappointed the same person. Commissioner Overton said he likes the direction the board is going. That decision spoke volumes.
This matters now because, in my opinion, one of the sparks that ignited this division came from Rich Ford. He’s a local pastor and is now running for county commissioner. I like Rich, and I think highly of his wife. But on Oct. 30, 2024, he stood up in a library board meeting and declared, “A library, a public library, should be a place I can be able to trust my 7-year-old to walk into and not be bombarded with pornographic material.” He went on to say, “I should be able to send my children to the school and there are teachers that are trying to pit them against their parents.”
The library is not “full of pornographic material.” We have a professional librarian — who is also a mother — making selections responsibly and following library law and policy. The library functioned beautifully for over 50 years before these recent appointments. For anyone, especially a pastor, to make sweeping insinuations in a public meeting is, in my opinion, deeply irresponsible. And if he truly believes a teacher is turning his child against him, the appropriate response is to work with the school administration, not to level inflammatory claims in a public forum.
Those statements have stayed with me because it seems they are meant to undermine trust in the very institutions that have served this community well for generations. They cast suspicion on people who have dedicated their lives to creating a safe, supportive environment for our children. I don’t know a single person in Meeker who wouldn’t intervene if a child were in harm’s way. To suggest otherwise is not only untrue — it’s insulting. And it raises the question of why someone in his position would choose to make such implications publicly.
During the same meeting, Rich Ford said, “We need to be choosing books that we can all get along with because I think we’re all tired of the division nationwide community wide and there’s so much good literature out there that’s not divisive.” I see this as a call to censure books which is in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment — Freedom of Speech.
Certain leaders of our community agree with this rhetoric and are pushing our community into a direction that, I believe, the majority of us don’t align with.
Fortunately, we can correct course. We can return to the decency, balance, and cooperation that makes Meeker such a special place. We hold the power to shape our local government for the better. That’s why I’ll be voting for Travis Day for county commissioner. I believe he has the judgment to appoint qualified, objective board members, and that he will lead with the steady, fair approach our county deserves.
Jeni Morlan
Meeker
Concerns about endorsement
Dear Editor:
To the Medical Providers of Meeker, I read your letter to the editor last week. You have every right to submit it, and you’re likely within your legal rights to do so. Still, I wish it had been signed by each of you individually rather than as a group. It came across as hiding behind the title.
“The Medical Providers of Meeker” could mean many things — some readers might assume it includes nurses, phlebotomists, x-ray techs, and other staff at PMC, not just physicians, surgeons, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. Even narrowing it to the doctors, surgeons, nurse practitioners and physicians assistants, outsiders are left wondering whether every single one of you truly agreed, or if any felt pressured to go along. Without individual names, that question lingers.
As a former board member, I understand the important difference between the board’s role and the medical staff’s role. I respect your right to speak as private citizens. But as physicians in a small town, you carry a special responsibility. The letter may be perfectly legal, but I question whether it was fully ethical.
When doctors publicly weigh in on hospital board races, it can look like the medical staff is trying to protect its own interests, influence governance, or control the board, rather than letting the community decide. I’d rather see you focus on practicing medicine while the rest of us handle the governance side.
I still believe the board benefits from outside perspectives. That’s just my opinion as a community member. Either way, I appreciate the care you provide our town, and I’m grateful we’re all rooting for a strong hospital.
Paul “Buckshot” Sheridan
Meeker