January was a month full of transitions. The first of the month saw a new mayor for Auburn, new chairman of the Cayuga County Legislature and several new town supervisors. These were very public transitions. One that did not make big news occurred last week; local attorney Robert K. Bergan finished his second and final term as the president of the board of trustees of Auburn Memorial Hospital.

In many minds, Auburn Memorial Hospital would not be as stable as it is today and with the new leadership it has without Bergan - he was the glue that held it all together at AMH for more than two years.

Clearly, Bergan did not do what he did for the publicity - month after month, he was in the lead paragraphs of story after story about layoffs, personnel restructuring, a sea of red ink and in the end AMH seeking to restructure from a bankruptcy court. Individually and collectively, not the news you wanted to be associated with. Yet it was his leadership that allowed the hospital to transition from an institution that could have been closed under the Berger Commission recommendations in December 2006 to an institution that will likely come out of bankruptcy this summer, healthier than it has been for years.

Nor did he do it for the money - the president of the board is a volunteer position. If it hasn't been said elsewhere, Bergan put in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours over the last two years working to move AMH forward. If anything, it cost him money. As an attorney, your livelihood is based on your billable hours - they don't come from sitting in meeting after meeting on Lansing Street strategizing how to fix what was clearly a broken institution. It is surprising his partners at Boyle and Anderson in the 110 Building didn't kidnap him and bring him back to their suite of offices on Genesee Street and tie him down to do time sheets.

Bergan, who many thought might make another run for the Assembly in 2006 (he ran in 2004 against Assemblyman Gary D. Finch), or more likely for mayor of Auburn last year, didn't do this because it would help him politically. One doesn't run after immediately being associated with layoffs and/or heading an institution that declares bankruptcy. There is little question that the former city councilor could have run in several competitive races over the last two years - he didn't so as to focus his time and energy on curing and mending AMH, which just ended the last year in the black.

For all of that, those who know that AMH is vital to this community, there is no doubt that Bergan deserves to be praised for his selfless volunteerism at the helm of Auburn Memorial Hospital over two very tough years.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com