ATHOL – On Sunday, Town Manager Shaun Suhoski declared a state of emergency for Athol which will remain in effect until further notice. While similar declarations have been made at the state and national levels, Suhoski explained there are good reason for following suit.
“In order for cities and towns to access emergency relief funding that might be put forward through FEMA or MEMA,” he said, “we would need to be under that declaration. So, the timing of that, obviously, coincides with the governor’s additional restrictions and many other cities and towns doing the same. But it’s really to put the town operationally in a state of readiness.”
FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, while MEMA is the state’s counterpart.
“We will begin logging expenses and costs that are linked to the COVID-19 threat,” Suhoski explained. “Down the road, after the dust clears, we will be seeking federal and state assistance to cover a portion of those costs.”
Suhoski said for the time being, expenses related to the town’s response to the virus will come from the general fund.
“We’ll operate within our appropriations,” he continued. “The town does have – and I’m not foreseeing use of these – but the town does have a reserve fund that’s at the behest of the Finance Committee. And we have a stabilization fund that Town Meeting could access if needed. But I’m not anticipating any of that at this time.”
Suhoski said that, to a great extent, the current emergency is unlike any the town has dealt with in recent memory.
“We’re in, relative to my work experience anyway – we are somewhat in uncharted territory in terms of a threat that the scientific community and health community have said is very real,” said Suhoski. “And yet, we don’t even have testing available yet to understand the scope of it and where we may stand at this time.”
He added that it’s hard to estimate at this juncture just how much it will cost the town to deal with the pandemic.
“We see the spread of this disease and, as a government, we need to make sure that the water that comes out of peoples’ faucets is sanitized and potable, and that wastewater operates, and that police can provide security and safety. And our EMS and fire service, they’re going to be called on to transport folks should they become ill. And that’s just scratching the surface of it.
“So, the intent of a declaration is to put everybody on alert. We had a meeting (Monday) morning, a briefing with all of our public safety officials. We’re preparing plans to keep our public sate and also our employees safe. That’s what we’re working on right now.”
Suhoski added that he and other town officials last week participated in a conference call with a leadership team from Heywood Healthcare, which operates Athol Memorial Hospital, to help develop a response plan.
“We talked to better understand what’s going on and make sure that we’re all on the same page in terms of readiness,” he said. “There’s close contact between the hospital and our Board of Health, our EMS, and our paramedics as well. We’re in regular communication.”
Suhoski concluded by saying everyone needs to use common sense.
“The advice we’re giving Athol’s employees and our citizens is: be responsible and be safe. We need to do that as an employer, as an organization, and we need to promote that to our citizens as well.”
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com