July 11, 2023 12:03 PM UTC

Mesa County Health Board Causing Worry

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• by: Ckonola

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Mesa County Colorado is officially on the world map these days, thanks to the likes of Tina Peters and Lauren Boebert, but what is causing me a lot of worry these days is the direction of the Mesa County Health Department’s Board.

Janet Rowland got herself appointed to that Board as part of her vendetta against Dr. Jeff Kuhr.

By way of background, Rowland was term-limited out of her position on the Board of County Commissioners, sat out two terms while her hand picked successor (Rose Pugliese) kept the seat warm for two terms, then ran again for that seat and was elected again in 2020. In the 2020 campaign, Rowland argued against pandemic mask mandates and regularly posted Covid misinformation. At the time I remember asking Dr. Kuhr if he thought he would be able to work with Rowland. Kuhr was very diplomatic in his response.

Tim Foster, then the President of Colorado Mesa University (CMU,) provided a soft landing for Rowland when term limits moved her out of the commissioner’s seat. Foster had a habit of providing soft landings, i.e. David Ludlum, who was executive director of the West Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association, prior to becoming the VP of Communications at CMU; and John Marshall, manager of the disasterous campaigns of Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bob Beauprez in 2006 (Janet was his Lt. Guv choice, famously equating the LGBTQ+ community with beastiality) and Republican Greg Walcher for CD3. Even Josh Penry landed softly at CMU before he went on to bigger and better things.

Given that history, it is somewhat amusing that Tim Foster is currently representing Kuhr in the kerfuffle at the health department. Having attended a couple of the meetings of that Board, it is obvious that the Board is being stacked with idealogues and that they are heading toward a lawsuit, which will be another needless expense for Mesa County.

Dr. Kuhr was awarded the Rocky Mountain Health Plans Annual Bruce Wilson, M.D. Memorial Award, an award that recognizes those who have made meaningful differences in the lives Colorado communities for his work during the pandemic. He implemented the 5-Star Program in Mesa County, which was later taken state-wide as a way to keep businesses open during Covid.

At the first Health Department Board meeting that I attended, a who’s who of Mesa County Republican business leaders showed up in support of Dr. Kuhr. No doubt many of them had voted for Rowland, perhaps even contributed to her campaign. The meeting was quite heated, and loosely controled by the Mesa County Attorney. Two weeks later the man elected as Board Chair resigned his position, only to be replaced by another anti-science idealogue.

Per Wikipedia: The rapture is an eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will rise “in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.”

I have started to think that the only focus of the Board hand picked by the very religious Janet Rowland is to hasten the rapture. That’s why I’m worried.