Dayton Gets Real: Community collects signatures for public hospital in West Dayton

DAYTON — A community group is working to bring a public hospital to West Dayton.

As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, the Clergy Community Coalition hosted an event to collect signatures for their petition on Sunday.

Coalition leaders said West Dayton has been a healthcare desert since the Good Samaritan Hospital shut down, according to a previous News Center 7 report.

President of the Clergy Community Coalition Bishop Richard Cox said Sunday’s event was successful.

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“We collected 100 signatures,” Cox said.

The coalition believes this hospital is a “much-needed entity” for the community.

“A public hospital helps people who are poor, people who are indigent, people who have no insurance or little insurance,” Cox said.

Good Samaritan Hospital was one of 11 public hospitals in Ohio and helped the community for almost 100 years, according to Cox.

“It is an inclusive initiative that does not discriminate. This would be a hospital for everybody,” Pastor Renard Allen said.

The coalition needs 1,250 signatures from registered Dayton voters before presenting the plan to the Dayton City Commission.

If the commission approves the plan, it will be put on the ballot in November.

City residents would then vote on a proposed one-mill tax that could raise $2 million every year, for 10 years.

“It will cost a person with a property value of $100,000, $35,” Cox said.

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Cox said if the public hospital is approved, it will not only bring healthcare to the area but also new job opportunities.

“A public hospital is a hospital of the people, there is transparency,” Clergy Community Coalition Secretary Nancy Kiehl said.

The Clergy Community Coalition is hosting another event to collect signatures from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on July 14 at Grace United Methodist Church.

We will continue to follow this story.

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