Council is still true airport boss

While the Kalispell City Council’s recent decision to turn over management of the city airport to Red Eagle Aviation ruffled some feathers, it was a justifiable change that makes sense.

The move away from having an in-house employee as the manager to privatized management is expected to save the city about $13,000 annually, mostly by not having to pay benefits.

One critic said it was like letting the fox guard the hen house, because Red Eagle is the main business at the airport. But that can be looked at from a different perspective — Red Eagle is the most constant presence at the airport and it must meet the terms of its contract with the city.

If the city wants to adopt rules governing airport operations, then Red Eagle must see that those rules are complied with. That’s because the city is still in charge; it did not relinquish control over its property.

All that is needed here is some diligent oversight on the city’s part and some accountability on Red Eagle’s part.

A common-sense solution

Another move by the Kalispell council on Monday promises to smooth the process for selecting city representatives for various boards.

The policy change allows council members to advance board appointments without the mayor’s recommendation if the mayor’s first recommendation does not win majority support.

This is a common-sense change that will allow the council to get past those rare deadlocks in the appointment process while still giving the mayor the primary role in appointments.

Rx for Polson’s ‘emergency’

Health care is not just fraught with controversy on the national scene, as was demonstrated recently when Kalispell Regional Medical Center began work on an expanded primary care clinic in Polson.

The opportunity for more health care choices would seem like a win-win for Lake County, but Providence St. Joseph Medical Center expressed concerns last month that the new clinic would force the local hospital to close its emergency room facility as the result of tightened finances caused by the new competition.

We aren’t in a position to weigh in on the likelihood of that happening, but we do want to encourage both the Kalispell and Polson hospitals to make an effort to work together and find a solution that will work for the entire community, not just their narrow self-interests.

That seems like it may be happening. At a presentation by KRMC CEO Velinda Stevens earlier this week, attended by the CEOs of the hospitals in both Polson and Ronan, Stevens vowed that Polson would not lose its ER room as a result of the new clinic.

“We will always have an ER here,” said Stevens. “We will put it in writing to this town to keep the ER open.”

That may go a long way toward reassuring Lake County residents. And going forward, we hope that the CEOs and boards of all three hospitals can work together to put the patients first, and as the medical profession’s credo demands, “do no harm.”

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Daily Inter Lake’s editorial board.