A campaign to pass a sales tax to support funding of a new hospital began in earnest Wednesday evening.
About 50 volunteers met in the Mary Ellen Stadler Conference Room in Allen County Hospital’s basement to be appraised of tactics by co-chairmen Jim Gilpin and Don Copley. After meeting in six individual groups, each with specific responsibilities, brief tours of the hospital were given so those who will campaign for the issue will be familiar with the wants and needs of the 58-year-old hospital.
Another meeting is at 7:30 tonight. All those who want to help promote a new hospital are encouraged to attend.
Gilpin told volunteers the voter-education window would be open only a little over two months until the Nov. 2 general election.
Allen County commissioners will decide very soon whether to ask for a quarter- or half-cent sales tax to support funding for construction and equipping of a new hospital and to provide startup and working capital. The issue is expected to be about $30 million.
The level of tax decided will depend on whether Iola provides up to $350,000 a year for 10 years from proceeds of a sales tax it has in place for capital improvement. Legal language permitting the transfer and to ensure sale of bonds is being crafted. City commissioners have agreed to help with funding but an agreement won’t be signed until legal issues are resolved.
THE SIX teams of campaign volunteers will operate individually. Team captains will meet every Monday from noon until 1 o’clock at the courthouse to track progress.
In the last countywide general election 5,694 people voted, leading Gilpin to put the number of votes needed for passage at 3,000, “to give us a little margin for error.” Voting lists from 2008 and 2009 elections have been obtained and will be used to target voters.
The campaign largely will depend on individual contacts between volunteers and voters, in a wide-ranging door-to-door campaign in all the county’s towns and by telephone with rural residents, who will receive brochures by mail and then have follow-up telephone conversations with campaign workers.
Every avenue of campaigning will be employed. Gilpin noted it wasn’t possible to know which form would be most effective with each voter.
A series of questions and answers will be developed for media presentation and on a website that will be constructed by Jana Taylor, Iola Area Chamber of Commerce director. A tabloid, crammed with information, will be distributed through the Register and Humboldt Union about two weeks ahead of the election. The tabloid also may reach subscribers of the Chanute Tribune in the southern part of the county.
Posters and yards signs will be a part of the effort. They, and all other printed material, will have a logo that volunteers are in the process of picking from among three proposed.
The logos are orange, Gilpin said, for several reasons. That is one of the school colors in the Moran-Elsmore and Humboldt districts; road signs, designed for visibility, are orange; and the hospital placards will stand out from political signs, usually done in red and blue, that will crop up as the general election nears.
“This has to be a broad-based effort if it is going to be successful,” including solicitation of donations to support the campaign, Gilpin said. Cost is estimated at $10,000 and will be raised through donations of any size, “from $5 to $50 to $100, or whatever anyone wants to give,” he said.
THE SIX volunteer committees will work to register people to vote, provide a speakers’ bureau, accumulate and control information, plan and execute community efforts, keep tabs of voters who have expressed support for a new hospital and deal with revenue and expenditures.
Each team will plan its approach to individual tasks and be led by four people in leadership positions. Teams will contain 15, 20 or more people, and likely will grow as the campaign progresses and support quickens.
The deadline to register to vote for the general election is Oct. 18. After that date, volunteers involved with registration will busy themselves with organizing voters and keeping them targeted on the referendum.
PowerPoint and written presentations will be put together for public meetings, as well as those involving neighborhood groups at events such as coffees and small group discussions. A virtual tour of ACH will be a part of website offerings and physical tours of the hospital will be made available.
Campaign headquarters are planned in Iola, Humboldt and Moran and will be staffed at least part time. Brochures, copies of questions and answers, yard signs and posters will be available for those who drop by. Volunteers also will write advertisements, collect testimonials and endorsements, orchestra letters to the editor and do social networking.
Mobilization of groups friendly to the campaign will be ongoing.
A “count-me-in” project specifically will keep track daily of those who have committed to vote for the sales tax, with the 3,000-vote total always in mind.
WHILE COUNTY commissioners officially haven’t voted to build a new hospital on another site, all three — Dick Works, Gary McIntosh and Rob Francis — have made it clear that was their intention. The vote to start the process awaits only clearing legal hurdles to determine Iola’s financial participation and subsequently whether the referendum will decide a quarter- or half-cent sales tax.
