Hospital Candidates Hold Meet & Greet

DAYTON - Colleen Sproul and Jeff Monyak, two Dayton residents challenging current Columbia County Health District board members in November's election, will host meet and greet events on Tuesday, Oct. 11.

Monyak is challenging incumbent Jack Otterson, of Waitsburg, for position 5. Otterson has held the seat for eight years. Sproul is challenging incumbent Blaine Bickelhaupt, of Dayton, for position 2. Bickelhaupt has been on the board for six years.

The first meet and greet event will be held in Waitsburg next Tuesday from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Coppei Coffee Co. The second event will be held the same day from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Delany Building in Dayton.

Both positions 2 and 5 are at-large positions, meaning anyone in the hospital district boundaries can run for the seat.

Sproul and Monyak decided to hold the meet and greets because they're the only challengers in the coming November General Election for hospital board seats.

An open forum for all candidates that was to be held Oct. 13 was recently canceled, Monyak said.

The meet and greets will allow community members to ask questions of the candidates, find out more about their personal lives, why they're running, what their goals and concerns are about the district and what the future of the hospital should look like, Monyak said.

Sproul's family moved to the Touchet Valley in the 1880s and she moved to the Dayton area in 1993. She is a retired nurse who used to work in Dr. Michael Luce's private practice in Dayton. Now at age 60, she believes being on the board would be a great way to give back to the community.

Monyak, age 49, is retired from the military and has lived in Dayton for 10 years.

Now, he is living out his "retirement dream" and running a wildlife art shop in Dayton called Trails End Taxidermy.

Sproul said both she and Monyak are somewhat unknown in the community and she looks forward to not have the events become argumentative, but informational.

"We really don't want it to turn into (a debate)," she said. "Anything they want to know, basically, we'll tell."