The Cove's Institutions

National Public Radio broadcast another in its series on rural health care on May 14. The story described how the town of Fort Scott, Kansas, is trying to cope with the closing of a local hospital.

The hospital had served the community for more than a century but recently closed.

According to wikipedia, Fort Scott is a city in and is the county seat of Bourbon County, Kansas, 88 miles south of Kansas City, on the Marmaton River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 8,087.

The community was notified by an official public notice stating, “This shall serve as public notice that as of February 1, 2019, Mercy Hospital Fort Scott, located at 401 Woodland Hills Boulevard, Fort Scott, Kansas 66701, will cease providing health care services, including emergency services.”

And just like that, a community no longer has a hospital.

NPR’s report stated that “the hospital's closure was a loss they never imagined possible.”

“Babies are going to be dying,” said longtime resident Darlene Doherty. “This is a disaster.”

I heard the news story while driving and it made me think about the Cove’s hospital, Conemaugh Nason.

I’m not in any way implying that Conemaugh Nason is in financial trouble or that it is in danger of closing.

But it is a small hospital in a rural community. There’s no law saying that it cannot close if health care conditions change.

That got me thinking about the Cove’s other institutions such as the longtime businesses like the Appvion paper mill, New Enterprise Stone & Lime and the shoe factory. And, of course, there’s the Herald.

All these have been in the Cove for multiple decades, if not a century or more. They provide services and jobs and support the Cove’s economy.

But what if one of them were to vanish? There’s no question that there would be a strong negative effect. Jobs would be lost; family incomes would be affected and certain important services would not be available locally.

If Conemaugh Nason were to close, the nearest emergency room would be in Altoona or UPMC Bedford Memorial.

If the Herald were to close, there would be very little reliable news available. Cove residents would have to rely on the unreliable rumor mill or social media. (The Altoona Mirror doesn’t really cover the Cove anymore.) Perhaps the Bedford Gazette would open a Cove bureau.

Why have traditional industries have survived in the Cove when they have disappeared from much of the rest of the country? I’ve heard that it’s because of the Cove workforce. Cove residents show up for work, do a good job and don’t make problems. I’m sure that’s one reason why there’s still a shoe factory here when most of the shoe factories in the United States long ago moved overseas where wages are cheap and hours are long.

The same goes for the paper mill in Roaring Spring. In addition to the great quality and quantity of water provided by the spring, the workforce is no-nonsense and gets the job done.

Now, again, let me stress that I’m not hinting that any one of these Cove institutions is in any kind of trouble. I’m not aware of any problems at Conemaugh Nason and I can state that the Herald is financially stable.

But when I’m driving around the Cove, I wonder how much different it would be without its institutions, without those services that we’ve all relied upon for decades.

This prompts me to be sure that I do my part to make sure that these institutions are here for many more years. I support Conemaugh Nason, I shop locally and I recently called NES&L for an estimate on paving.

I know that many of you love the Cove the way that I do. I hope that you, too, support Cove institutions when possible. If so, we’re ding our part to keep them around.

Thank you for reading.