We are certain that many people — patients and their employers — think highly of Tri-County Community Healthcare, which aims to open a medical clinic in rural Johnston. But the healthcare provider, while it does admirable work, fell a rung on our respect ladder when it sued the county over a failed rezoning request.

Don’t get us wrong; we can think of no logical reason to fear a doctor’s office on a rural road outside of Four Oaks. Then again, we don’t live on Faith Church Road, and neither do County Commissioners. For that reason, it’s hard to fault commissioners for heeding the wishes of Faith Church Road residents, who opposed a doctor’s office in their backyard.

At the same time, unlike Tri-County, we are not on a mission to provide medical care to the poor, so we can see why the provider might go to legal extremes to win a rezoning request. But land on Faith Church Road wasn’t Tri-County’s only option. Johnston Community College was willing to carve out a slice of Howell Woods for Tri-County, and we understand that one county commissioner was lobbying other Four Oaks-area property owners to part with some of their lands.

It’s possible that Tri-County found fault with these alternatives. We don’t know that, however, because Tri-County’s leaders have not returned phone calls from Herald reporters. But we do know that Tri-County is suing Johnston to get what the county’s duly elected leaders said the healthcare provider could not have. With other options available, we have to wonder why Tri-County is taking legal action instead of working with the county.