Valencia! reported this week that the Valencia County Action Commitee (VCAC) and a related group calling itself Citizens for Change placed a new large sign calling for a four-lane Highway 47 and a bridge across the Rio Grande, between Los Chavez and Tome-Adelino.

VCAC also has been intimately involved in fighting to get the county hospital built and is responsible for the pro-hospital signs around the county.

What VCAC managed to do this week with its new push for the four-lane Highway 47 and bridge is shift the hospital debate away from an argument for healthcare to a debate over development.

It’s the worst decision the pro-hospital movement could have made, because now the hospital opposition is reframing the debate. Up to this point, the pro-hospital movement, which includes VCAC, has successfully painted the plaintiffs who filed the hospital lawsuit and their supporters as anti-hospital and, by implication, anti-healthcare. But the debate was reframed this week, with the anti-hospital locals transforming themselves into a pro-agriculture movement, with the help of the ill-conceived four-lane and bridge attack on the historic community of Tome-Adelino.

Should this new pro-agriculture movement stick with its message and target that message to the agricultural communities, they could successfully sway more public opinion against the hospital.

Public opinion might not matter so much soon, however. The New Mexico Court of Appeals is “ready” to schedule and hear the county hospital appeal.

This page was published on April 17, 2009 at 2:01pm and is filed under Los Chavez, Rio Communities, Tome-Adelino, Valencia County. You may copy and paste this page's link to email it.