HEALTH DISTRICT IN TRANSITION

Former Nurse Leads Primary Results

DAYTON - This fall's general election runoff for Board of Commissioners Position 2 of the Columbia County Health District will be between Colleen Sproul and Blaine Bickelhaupt.

With all ballots counted in the Waitsburg portion of Walla Walla County and Columbia County Tuesday night, Sproul led Bickelhaupt 41.25 percent to 37.9 with Garry Snyder, the third candidate trailing at 20.86 percent.

Sproul, a former nurse, performed particularly well in Columbia County, where she garnered 479 or 44.81 percent of the votes, compared to Bickelhaupt with 33.49 percent and Snyder with 21.7 percent.

Bickelhaupt did better among Waitsburg voters who share in the use of the twocounty health district. He got 129 votes, or almost 60 percent, compared to Sproul's 51 votes for 23.6 percent and Snyder's 36 votes for 16.6 percent.

Sproul could not be reached for comment Tuesday night and contacted late, Bickelhaupt said he preferred not to comment on the results until later.

Snyder, owner of Christy's Realty in Dayton, said he was surprised he got fewer votes than Bickelhaupt, but was encouraged by Sproul's performance.

"I'm glad Colleen did really well. Good for her," he said. "I'll campaign for her. I think she is the person best suited for the position."

Snyder said health district voters are ready to elect someone with medical/nursing background as complaints of poor personnel management continue to emanate from the staff at Dayton General Hospital.

Snyder said Bickelhaupt, owner of the local Windermere Real Estate office and a lifelong resident of Dayton, has more name recognition than he does.

Sproul isn't a household name in Dayton or Waitsburg either, but she ran on a platform of offering more input from a nurse's perspective, something that must have resonated with voters, he suggested.