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About Needs & Good Deeds

WAITSBURG - - A Waitsburg resident who prefers to remain anonymous told the Times that she takes full advantage of the prescription drugs drop-off program co-sponsored by Elk Drug, Columbia County Health Systems and the City of Waitsburg.

In her late seventies and describing herself as "lowincome," she has limited mobility and even more limited resources to pay for gas to go to Dayton, so she benefits from being able to swing by the Waitsburg Clinic to pick up prescription drugs she doesn't get through the mail.

" I don't get out that much," the resident said. "I have no local family to help me."

The City of Waitsburg's funding of the program was an initiative of former Mayor Markeeta Little Wolf. The city pays $600 a year to help cover the $1,200 it costs Columbia County Transportation to manage the prescription drug delivery and paperwork connected to the drop-off program.

Every weekday, around mid afternoon, the bus driver brings a bag of prescriptions to the clinic, sometimes as many as 20 per day, according to Elk Drug owner Sean Thurston.

A Times check of the drop off this week counted 11 prescriptions delivered to Waitsburg on Tuesday.

"This is about doing the right thing," Little Wolf said in a recent interview. "The bulk of the patients (who benefit from the dropoff program) are disadvantaged."

But as charitable as the program is, the current city council has struggled with the question of whether helping fund the program is a proper city government function, particularly because Waitsburgers already pay property taxes in support of the clinic through the combined health district.

"In essence, you end up paying for it twice," City Administrator Randy Hinchliffe said. "Granted, it's not a lot of money, but (the council believed) the city shouldn't pay for it if it's a hospital service."

Hinchliffe said the council may have been interested in a three-way funding split between Elk Drug, Columbia County Health System and the city, but that Columbia County Health System wouldn't go for it.

But health district CEO Charlie Button doesn't see how it has anything to do with the hospital.

"It's people in the community using Elk Drug," he said, referring to consumers with prescriptions from district physicians, but providers outside the local health system as well.

Whether or not the prescription drug users are district patients, they can use the Waitsburg Clinic as a pickup point and that's already a service to the community Columbia County Health System isn't obligated to provide but does, he said.

Even if the district wanted to, it may not be legally allowed to use taxpayers' money to subsidize private sector activity and it certainly doesn't have the resources, he said.

"We have budget cuts all over the place," Button said. "We truthfully don't have the money."

Still, the district recently agreed to pay a $25-a-month fee to Elk Drug to pay for deliveries of drugs used by its staff at the Waitsburg Clinic, which in effect helps offset the cost of the program.

Be that as it may, the Waitsburg City Council at its last meeting on Nov. 16 voted unanimously to quit paying its share of the bill starting in January - unanimously, that is, without the presence of Councilman Carl Newell.

Newell said he couldn't make it to the meeting, but would have voted against terminating city funding, saying the program is a worthwhile service to the community.

" There are some 225 prescriptions a month going to Waitsburg residents," he said.

Elk Drug's Thurston said his business will continue to pay for half the transportation program, but he just wasn't willing to fill the entire gap left by the withdrawal of the City of Waitsburg's support.

Setting aside the whole question of whether it's a proper city responsibility, the funding gap will now be filled by a group of Waitsburg business owners and individuals who believe the program, whose cost is small, should continue seamlessly for their community's disadvantaged: Hubbard Law, the Whoop Em Hollow Cafe, Touchet Valley Publishing (The Times) and Little Wolf herself.

From the Times' perspective, it's a fair question whether taxpayers should foot the bill for a program that could be seen as a community service or a charity properly supported voluntarily by the private sector.

Regardless of that debate, which is philosophical for some and political for others, the most important thing is that there is a way to continue this program that benefits the elderly, the disadvantaged and the less mobile.