A few years ago, the OBSERVER published a letter from a retired nurse who was worried that Lakeshore and Brooks would be reduced to the status of feeders for the large hospitals in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Erie, and Cleveland. The events of the last several years have made me wonder if there might be validity to her concerns.

My trepidation kicked into high gear a few weeks ago when l read in the OBSERVER that Mary LaRowe, the chief executive officer of Brooks and TLC, was an employee of the Kaleida Health System. Where is her loyalty and concern? Is it to the people of Chautauqua and Cattaraugus counties or is it to the corporation that writes her paycheck?

Over the last several years Kaleida has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on construction at Buffalo General and Children’s Hospitals.

A reasonable assumption is that a lot of that money was borrowed and must be repaid. The easiest way to ensure your own prosperity is to get control of your neighbors and competitors and shut them down.

As an example, we saw it happen with the peanut butter business in Fredonia (the company that bought Red Wing had no intention of continuing the manufacture of peanut butter in Fredonia).

It raises some questions. Was LaRowe sent out to destroy Brooks and Lakeshore? What is the big delay on construction of the new Brooks Hospital? Is it to stall until the state — currently in big difficulty with its own budget — withdraws its promised funding?

Why the unseemly rush to gut Lakeshore?

Was it to preclude the possibility of maybe somebody resurrecting it?

Like l say, lots of questions. The self-serving letter from LaRowe and Christopher Lanski, board chairman, a few weeks ago did not do much to inspire confidence in the institution’s actions.

l do believe a whole lot of other people have a whole lot of other questions that deserve to be answered before these matters are put to rest.

Larry Zollinger is a South Dayton resident.