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Editor,

I’d like to response to yet ANOTHER “paid” letter to the editor last week by Robin Fugate.

At 28:31 minutes into my recording of the September 20th meeting, she said: “Is there anybody in this group that wants to talk to Norma Owens from Iron County that knows all about Mr. Nichols.”

I went back and listened to my recording because I distinctly remembered she had interrupted/disrupted the meeting to make this statement without being recognized by the board to speak and I was pretty certain that she had indeed called her by name.

So, I’d like to ask everyone the same thing she asked in her letter to the editor, If someone would lie about something so petty, what makes people believe they are telling the truth about other things? I also have to wonder if there’s any proof that Mr. Nichols actually said what she claimed.

I heard the employees speak at the very next meeting. In my opinion, they sounded VERY sincere and I was disappointed that while the Sun shared videos of the speeches given the week before, when Robin was a speaker, they didn’t share the ones of support by the employees. But they did send them in as Letters to the Editor, I hope everyone had an opportunity to read them. Board member David Bozarth also wrote a Letter to the Editor, I hope people have also read it. In addition, there was a Statement the board released during that meeting that praised Mr. Nichols.

I’ve had employees personally reach out to me and tell me how much they think of Terry Nichols. They have NOTHING to gain by singing his praises to me, yet they can’t ever seem to say enough great things about him. Of course, these are employees who all still work at the hospital. They are not statements that have been made to an attorney by ex-employees. I also have nothing to gain by speaking up for the CEO, the hospital, or the board.

Are we to believe statements made by people who obviously do not like Mr. Nichols? Are we to believe the statements made by Kevin Couch? This former Pineville CEO was “fired” as CFO when Terry was hired as CEO, he was hired back by the board after Terry “resigned” (not fired, resigned), and has now been “fired” again! People can say anything, but are all of these people credible or are they just the ones that were willing to say bad things?

I am sick of this rhetoric! Sheesh, I’ve even been sent screenshots of lies being told about me now! In my humble opinion, this needs to stop.

But there’s one thing that I’d like to wholeheartedly agree with from that letter, “We don’t want to become sheep.”

Since I don’t want this to have to be a paid letter to the editor, I’ll stop there.

Thank you,

Cindy Malone

Administrator/Founder of the Concerned Citizens of Cedar County