Forgive the misspelling of Ethnic in the title.......... http://www.newsobserver.com/news/johnston/story/1249659.html Ethnic bias alleged in Johnston FOUR OAKS - Johnston County commissioners are facing a lawsuit and charges of bias against Hispanics after refusing to allow a nonprofit group to build a low-cost health clinic in a rural area outside this town. Tri-County Community Health Council has nailed down four acres of donated land in the southeastern end of the county and $650,000 a year in federal grants to run the proposed clinic. If built, the new facility would offer low-cost medical, dental and mental health care to a remote part of Johnston County that sorely lacks such services. In its lawsuit, Tri-County claims that commissioners acted arbitrarily by denying a request to rezone the property where Tri-County plans to build the clinic. The suit also cites what it calls discriminatory comments made by one member of the board before denying the permit. About half of the patients treated at other Tri-County health centers last year were Hispanic. Filed in Superior Court in March, the lawsuit targets the leadership of a county still embroiled in controversy after Sheriff Steve Bizzell made statements against Hispanics. The county board has expressed support for the sheriff, who apologized after calling Mexican natives "trashy" and accusing illegal immigrants of "breeding like rabbits," in an article that ran last month in The News & Observer. The vote to deny Tri-County's request is part of a legacy of hostility toward the county's growing Latino population, said Tony Asion, director of the Hispanic advocacy group El Pueblo. "This is unfortunately typical of the Johnston County of the past trying to stay that way," Asion said. "We want people to work the fields, but we don't want to take care of them." Commissioners cited the opposition of neighbors when they denied the permit in a 5-2 vote this spring -- the only time this year the board turned down a project approved by the planning board. Before the vote, Commissioner Ray Woodall was one of several board members to question whether a petition with more than 1,000 signatures in support of the clinic included neighbors of the proposed site. Of the signatures with nearby addresses, Woodall said "many of the surnames made me wonder if they are renters or actual owners in that area." Most of the names in the area are Hispanic. Board members Tony Braswell and DeVan Barbour voted in favor of the rezoning. Those who opposed it said they support Tri-County's mission, but they agreed with neighbors that it would fit better in a less-rural setting. They vehemently denied charges of bias. "That didn't have doodleysquat to do with it," said Wade Stewart, commissioners' vice chairman. "I'd like to have three of those in Johnston County, if they had found a better location." But critics say the board should have approved the rezoning despite the objections of neighbors because the clinic would benefit so many county residents -- including Hispanics, who make up more than 10 percent of the county's population and often lack health insurance. "The duty of the commissioners is to do what's best for the county, not what's good for a few people," said Tom Moore, a former county commissioner who served on the planning board at the time the case was heard. "You're always going to have someone objecting." Need in area Tri-County leaders began plans for the clinic by identifying a swath of southern Johnston county where many residents lack health insurance. They applied for a federal grant to serve an estimated 3,800 patients a year. Officials at Johnston Memorial Hospital and the Johnston County Health Department submitted letters in support of the proposed clinic, noting that the lack of access to routine health care results in increased demand for emergency care at hospitals. The original Tri-County clinic, near the Sampson County town of Newton Grove, started 30 years ago in a tiny office and now occupies a sprawling 60,000-square-foot building nearby with numerous additions. A new pharmacy is under construction. Patients have flocked to the site despite the remote location, which longtime Tri-County employee Connie Wooten describes as being located "between a wooded creek and a cotton patch." "We're happy to be in the middle of nowhere," said Tri-County CEO Michael Baker. Space is tight at a temporary clinic Tri-County has opened in downtown Four Oaks, a few miles from the proposed site on Faith Church Road. One doctor and a part-time dentist see about 15 patients a day -- the most the storefront office can hold and about half the number they would see at the proposed 5,000-square-foot clinic. A dental hygienist works behind temporary partitions and a cramped back room does triple duty as the office, lounge and conference room. Lidia Hernandez Alejo, who lives near Smithfield, has made her way to the Newton Grove clinic many times despite the long drive. She was happy to find out about the much closer Four Oaks location, where she was waiting while the dentist gave her husband a filling last week. "The services are a lot cheaper than other doctors," Alejo, 36, a mother of three, said of the clinic. Traffic concern Much of the opposition to the proposed clinic comes from residents whose homes dot the sprawling farmland surrounding the site. Opponents cite increased traffic along with a host of other possibilities: the large septic tank needed for the clinic might spoil wells in the area, for instance, or thieves seeking prescription drugs might break into the secluded site. Linda Lassiter said she already spends hours picking up trash along Faith Church Road, where she lives. "I know people need a place to go to the doctor, but it's going to make a big mess in our neighborhood, to be sure," Lassiter said. But some supporters of the project see prejudice behind the opposition to the clinic. "People made comments that these people would come in and bring crime and traffic and drugs and create problems for the neighborhood," said Moore, the former commissioner and planning board member. "There is no history that occurred at other sites." Commissioners are hoping to resolve the issue before a January court date. County employees have been directed to seek out another location that might suit them and the health care provider. Wow, they must REALLY be wanting their subscription rates to drop in Johnston County.
I feel that the board voted in error to deny the site. Any idea as to how many uninsured, under-insured use the ER's for the care. If we had better preventive care, then the routine aliments that could best be screened and treated at the local clinic level would not progress to the seriously ill stages that the ERs currently see. And, for those patients who really are in need of ER care, reducing the patient load can only be a positive thing. Do I feel that the denial reason was ethnically related. I'm not sure. And that should concern the local politicians. The fact that I can't automatically say that the ethnic reason was not valid should be viewed as a concern. As many subdivisions that are pretty much rubber stamped, it does seem quite curious that the need for medical services was denied.
I use to volunteer at the Sampon County site. There are not only hispanic people that go there for services. I have used their services myself. $25.00 for Xray, dental visit and a tooth to get pulled? Who in their right mind would turn that down?
Since one of the reasons given was the location is TOO rural it seems the desire is to put it closer to subdivisions according to the county. Board members Tony Braswell and DeVan Barbour voted in favor of the rezoning. Those who opposed it said they support Tri-County's mission, but they agreed with neighbors that it would fit better in a less-rural setting. They vehemently denied charges of bias.
