Saint Alphonsus Health System and its parent company, Trinity Health of Michigan, need to make a meaningful commitment to local residents regarding the birth center at the Baker City hospital.

Saint Alphonsus administrators posed a problem on June 22, when they announced that the birth center would close July 30 — there aren’t enough nurses to operate the birth center.

Local, state and federal officials responded rapidly with a solution. A partnership between Baker County and the federal and state governments will make available six trained nurses for at least six months.

Yet as of Friday, Aug. 4, Saint Alphonsus had committed to keeping the birth center open for just four weeks beyond the initial July 30 closure date.

That’s not enough time.

Even six months is meager consolation to a community that has relied on the hospital for maternity services for more than a century.

But a guarantee that the birth center will remain open for at least six months would give pregnant women, and those who plan to become mothers, a reasonable chance to plan for their deliveries.

There is no obvious reason why Saint Alphonsus can’t make that commitment, given that the effort led by Sen. Ron Wyden and Baker County Commission chairman Shane Alderson has directly addressed the primary reason hospital officials cited for the birth center closure.

There has never been any doubt about how important the birth center is to local residents.

We saw it when more than 300 people turned out for Wyden’s town hall meeting in Baker City on June 25.

We’ve heard it from pregnant women, and from doctors and nurses.

But all that is for naught without a commitment from Saint Alphonsus.