Steamboat Pilot & Today

Paul Bonnifield remembers barn dances years ago in South Routt County.

Everyone would come, and everyone would dance.

"You get a fast tune, and everybody would get to stepping, and the floor would bounce," Bonnifield said. If you were out of step, your feet wouldn't land right on the moving floor.

Bonnifield is hoping to re-create those historic barn dances May 7, when an Old Fashioned Community Benefit Dance will be held to raise funds for the South Routt Medical Center.

The dance is sponsored by the Routt County Democratic Party, but is in no way a political event, Bonnifield said.

"The Democratic Party is just simply putting it together," he said. "They don't want to turn it into a political thing. Our purpose is to try to save a medical center."

A lot of Republicans are volunteering their time to make the event happen, as well, he said. Bonnifield is helping organize the event.

The South Routt Medical Center is facing financial difficulties, and there is concern about how long the center will stay open.

Funds raised at the dance could help keep the center open through the fall, when other steps could be taken, Bonnifield said.

The dance will feature several local bands. One will provide big band sounds from the 1930s and 1940s, another will perform country music, and a jazz group will perform during the breaks.

"What we're trying to do with the music is have something so people can come and dance to anything they want to dance to," Bonnifield said.

People who don't want to dance can come and enjoy the music, he said.

Refreshments will be available, and there will be a silent auction.

Yampa Valley Medical Assoc--iates provides medical services and billing services at the center, and the South Routt Medical Center board of directors oversees the building and makes sure the clinic is viable.

Yampa Valley Medical Assoc--iates is providing a physician assistant, but only on a month-by-month basis. Officials with YVMA have said that not enough patients come and not enough money is made to justify the partnership, unless the partnership changes.

The medical center board also is finding it difficult to pay all of its bills to keep the building going, board members have said.

The medical center board, with the help of YVMA and other health officials, is pursuing potential ways to make the clinic work. One option is to ask voters to approve a special tax district to help fund the medical center on a long-term basis.

The Old Fashioned Com--munity Benefit Dance will be from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. May 7 in the Soroco Middle School gymnasium. Admission is $5 a person, but children younger than 12 get in free. No alcohol will be allowed.

-- To reach Susan Cunningham, call 871-4203 or e-mail scunningham@steamboatpilot.com