By Mary-Justine Lanyon
At the Oct. 13 meeting of the Running Springs Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors, two local organizations made the case for the measures they have on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Mountains Community Health – represented by CEO Mark Turner, Chief Development Officer Kim McGuire and Gerry Hinkley, president of the MCH board of directors – has Measure Q on the ballot.
“There are things the people who built the hospital in 1951 couldn’t anticipate,” McGuire told the chamber board. “We need to modernize this 75-year-old hospital.” One thing they don’t have is adequate storage. “There are shipping containers all over the property with supplies,” McGuire said.
The three-phase project is intended to “secure healthcare in the mountains for the next 75 years,” she noted. The three phases are to bring the hospital up to seismic code, something that is mandated by the state and has to be done by 2030 for the hospital to remain in operation; the creation of a new emergency department and acute care wing; and the expansion of the skilled nursing facility.
McGuire displayed photos of hospitals that had been badly damaged in the 1971 and 1994 earthquakes. Current mandates require hospitals to be able to be fully functional after a disaster. To that end, MCH is installing two 50,000-gallon tanks, one for water and one for sewage.
When she showed photos of what the new entrance would look like, McGuire added that the covered entrance is also required by new mandates.
Turner then addressed the funding for this project. In. 2024, he said, MCH had acquired a $48.5 million USDA loan; they planned to cover the rest of the $72 million project with $23.5 million from a capital campaign and savings.
However, the financial picture changed in the summer of 2025 when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed. It cut Medicaid (known as Medi-Cal in California) by $1 trillion. “For MCH,” Turner said, “it would mean a loss of $4 million annually beginning in fiscal year 2028.”
MCH now proposes to pay for the project with a $61 million bond measure and $23.5 million in grants and donations; they have already raised $5.2 million, Turner said.
The maximum levy from the bond would be $25 per $100,000 assessed value for 30 years.
“We didn’t want to do this but found ourselves in the position where it became necessary,” Turner said.
Hinkley then said that they “worry about curtailing services. People would have to drive down the hill. We have to do our best to keep the hospital operating. If you tour the hospital,” he said, “you would be shocked by our 75-year-old building.”
Should the bond – Measure Q – not pass, Hinkley said, “we will get the seismic work done (as required by law) but we won’t be able to modernize the hospital.”
He added that the skilled nursing facility is not a temporary measure for the residents. “Once they come in, it’s their home,” Hinkley said.”
He told the Running Springs chamber board that their communities send 5,000 patients a year to MCH. “We appreciate your supporting us,” he said.
More information is available at residentsforq.com.
Chamber board member Jenny Hueter, the general manager of the Rim of the World Recreation and Park District, showed a video showcasing their facilities and the programs they offer.
Rec and Park’s Measure R proposes increasing the annual parcel tax that is on property owner’s tax bill from $22 to $37 with a 1-percent escalator.
The video and a PowerPoint presentation – both available on the Rec and Park website, rim-rec.org – detail the improvements the district has made to its facilities and its ongoing needs. A graph shows expenses have outrun income; another slide shows how they have cut expenses by reducing staffing, contracting out daycare services and doing a fee study to align program fees with true service costs.
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