Almost 30 years ago, Nancy Jane Osterling began a petition campaign decrying the actions of the Butler Memorial Hospital board of directors.

Two weeks ago, she started another.

Osterling's current petition calls for two actions by the hospital's board of directors. One is to reinstate a group known as the hospital association, and the other is to accept Vernon Wise's offer of $50,000 to pay an architectural firm to design a renovation of the current hospital. Wise is the publisher of the Butler Eagle.

Hospital board and administration members plan to build a new hospital at a new site for $155 million.

Osterling, 74, said Monday she has always been interested in helping the Butler County community. Most people know her for the eight consecutive terms - 32 years - she was elected to serve as county jury commissioner.

In the mid-1970s, the hospital was one of the areas in which Osterling concentrated her efforts.

At that time, county residents could vote on who served as a hospital director. This power came through the hospital association, which residents could join for $10 per year.

There were association meetings and hospital issues discussed.

One of the issues to arise in the middle of the 1970s was the way BMH's directors were spending the hospital's money.

"There were other issues with the board, but I just can't remember now what they were," said Osterling of Summit Township.

The first action association members took was to increase their numbers. Members were allowed to recruit one resident to the association per year and Osterling said that's what almost the entire group did, nearly doubling the membership in a few months.

"Then we had a meeting at the courthouse. I had reserved a room for 37 people, but in the end we had several hundred that spilled into the hallway," she said.

That's when the petition drive began with the signers asking association members to vote out the hospital board members. Osterling said they collected about 20,000 signatures.

"We voted all of (the board members) out, except one," she said.

Now 30 years later, Osterling a few months ago began fielding calls from residents who remembered her work in the 1970s.

"They started calling asking me what we can do to make the hospital give more information about the building plans. Or their children are calling asking for my help," she said.

Osterling said people just don't know what the hospital has planned for the new facility, and they don't understand how the hospital will pay for a new facility.

"I don't believe that the current board members have explored all their options. They need to look at the renovation of the current hospital before they saddle our grandchildren with a debt we don't know that we can pay," Osterling explained.

She has been giving the petitions to friends and neighbors to sign.

The petitions now in circulation will be sent to state Attorney General Tom Corbett "as soon as we can," she said. "United we stand in Butler County, and we must stand together now to get the answers we need and to make sure we have the hospital this community needs."