A Builder’s and a Doctor’s Desires for Cape May County

At the end of May I published in this column the ideas for the future of our county which the Cape Issues group has been discussing, and invited your responses, as well as solicited your thoughts. As they come forth, we share them with you. You see them in op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and Spout Offs. Some have been aggregated, and some have been sent directly to me (publisher@cmcherald.com) and made part of this column; this week I bring you another installment, below.
A community is a bundle of wishes and desires. Some of them are just thoughts, others we talk about with friends and family. By broadly sharing these thoughts, ones which resonate with a number of others tend to take wing and, with time, find fulfillment. Don’t keep them to yourself, share them. It is a slow process, but it is amazing how well it works.
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A member of the building trades shared his views:
I think that residents/citizens are in a position of being careful about getting what we wish for. One of the attractions of this area is also its greatest handicap, and that is its isolation. If the desire is for the area to be developed, or at least have a more sustainable year-round economic environment, then we need it to be more accessible. 
In a dream world, that would mean a bridge to Delaware from Cape May that would mean greater connection to the rest of the Northeastern corridor.   Now having said that, is that truly the goal? Is our isolation really that terrible? And would we truly be happy with becoming another bedroom community of the Northeastern metropolitan corridor? (Which some may argue has already occurred.)
I would like to see, as a first step, an improvement in the road systems, and an investment in completing the Route 55 extension. And barring that, I would like to see some kind of improvement in the condition of our road systems.
Some of our local highways and byways are in a disgraceful condition.   I would like to see this happen before the creation of any new omnibus county commissions, which always seem to add another layer of taxes and restrictions on the general public.
The other thing that is greatly needed is leadership and communication about the realities to make pro-active decisions. The financial state of most municipalities is constrained by a legacy of promises for pensions and health care to people who no longer work for their respective municipalities. 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a typical private sector guy railing against government workers. I personally think a lot of civil servants work pretty hard and are under pressure to perform more tasks for less money/benefits than their predecessors. But the public needs to know why things don’t get done (because it’s difficult to raise taxes to pay for everything that the public thinks it’s entitled to) the way we’d like. In short — If we want a “better” county or a better quality of life, are we willing to pay for it?
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A medical doctor from our community offered these thoughts:
I want to thank the Herald and Cape Issues for your work to enhance our community. In response to your efforts to bring together a common vision, I would like to express some thoughts. Medically, we are losing ground in the quality of the service which we provide to the public. For example, there is a difference in the level of training between a medical doctor and a physician’s assistant. Increasingly when you go to the “doctor,” you don’t see a doctor, but a lesser-trained professional; you see a physician’s assistant.
Why is this? There are fewer doctors entering the profession here in Cape May County. Thus, the average age of a doctor now is 53 to 54 years old. Related to this is the fact that years back, 80-some percent of doctors would encourage their children to go into the profession. Now, with all the state and federal regulations and involvement, that number has fallen to 5 to 10 percent.
Obamacare may sound like a good idea, but what you’re not told is that the better, more competent doctors will not take patients who rely on Obamacare for payment. We are going to end up with the English two-tier system, where those who can’t pay, wait, and those who can pay, get an appointment quickly via private providers.
The consolidation of medical practices into networks is not good for a patient’s choice of providers because it funnels everything through networks and drives up the cost.
On a general note, Cape May County is a phenomenal place to live, even though the culture is limited and so is the shopping.
The declining attendance in the churches and synagogues in our county is very detrimental to us.
Government has shown that it doesn’t really care about South Jersey; otherwise Route 55 would be completed. Route 55 would do so much to improve commerce in our county. 
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From the Bible: I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11