Letters to the editor: Residents should quiz Lillie, Woodwinds gives thanks, more ...

Woodbury residents should ask where Lillie stands

A warm welcome to Lake Elmo Sen. Ted Lillie as he relocates to Woodbury to run for an open Senate seat. We know he will like Woodbury once he gets to know our community.

Now that Lillie has decided to move to Woodbury, residents here deserve to know the answer to several questions:

1) Why did Lillie chief author Senate File 1388 – also known as the "Shoot First" bill – a troubling expansion of Minnesota's gun law that would allow residents to use deadly force should they feel threatened on their property or even near their car, boat, or pup tent?

2) Why did Lillie vote against allowing a veteran living in a state veterans’ home to be exempt from presenting photo ID to vote under the proposed constitutional amendment?

3) Why did Lillie vote to eliminate the market value homestead credit, which raises property taxes on every homeowner, business, senior citizen, and renter in Woodbury?

4) Why did Lillie vote to take money away from Woodbury students to balance the state budget?

Again, it is nice that Lake Elmo Sen. Lillie has moved to Woodbury. If you see him around town and he looks confused, please be helpful in providing him with directions and assistance.

Cheryl A. Schneider - Woodbury

Woodwinds bill to localize cancer treatment

Thank you to our state lawmakers for supporting legislation that will give cancer patients in and around Woodbury better access to vital cancer treatment.

We would like to thank the state Senate for its compromise radiation therapy legislation which was passed by an overwhelming 52-8 vote on March 28. With strong bipartisan support, the Senate passed the legislation. A special thanks to Sen. Ted Lillie, R-Lake Elmo, who worked closely with the members of the health committee and Rep. Kathy Lohmer who serves on the Health and Human Services committee in the House. The House should take up the bill soon and we expect strong support there as well.

The legislation allows HealthEast Cancer Care to relocate one of its linear accelerators from St. John’s Hospital in Maplewood and to move it to the Woodwinds Health Campus, another HealthEast hospital.

HealthEast Cancer Care is already serving the largest number of cancer patients in the Woodwinds primary service area and this will give these patients better access to treatment. HealthEast Cancer Care is affiliated with HealthEast’s four local community hospitals (St. John’s, St. Joseph’s, Woodwinds and Bethesda). A non-profit system, HealthEast serves all residents, irrespective of payment source or their ability to pay.

Minnesota’s tradition of nonprofit health care focuses on community hospitals that provide care for their communities 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and that have highly-trained staff and medical technology to handle any health catastrophe that comes in through our emergency room - as well as serving our non-emergency ill or surgical patients. Thanks to you, we can continue to provide these services within our non-profit mission to all patients.

Thank you.

Steve Kolar, MD, senior vice president and chief medical officer, HealthEast

Tom Schmitt, vice president and chief executive officer, Woodwinds Health Campus

Scott North, vice president and chief executive officer, St. John’s Hospital

Les Stern, vice president of specialty physicians and HealthEast Cancer Care

Roger Green, vice president of strategy, policy, marketing & communications, HealthEast

GOP’s priorities polarize the debate

I have no objection to Ted Lillie's decision to relocate to Woodbury so he can run for the Senate. He is welcome to do so. What I do have strong objections to is how his party, in which he holds a leadership position, has chosen to push a divisive and polarizing social agenda on the voters instead of sticking to economics.

Minnesotans do not want or need looser gun laws like the one that led to the unpunished killing of an unarmed teenager in Florida, voter "identification" laws that are clearly aimed at making it more difficult for voters who tend to support the opposition party to exercise their constitutional right to be heard, right to "work" laws that are actually intended to drive wages down, or constitutional amendments about marriage that duplicate existing law and will serve only to cause certain consumers to boycott Minnesota and its products and to discourage talented workers from relocating here because they are treated like second-class citizens.

Sen. Lillie, by all means move to Woodbury – but please don't try to fool us about what is really important to your party, which is obviously not jobs and taxes as you led voters to believe two years ago.

Jay Humsey - Woodbury

Tags: letters to the editor, opinion