UPDATED: Mayor Spicer Moves Meeting With State To Today, Instead of Next Week, To Discuss COVID-19 Resources For Framingham

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FRAMINGHAM – Mayor Yvonne Spicer will meet with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts today, September 4, and not Wednesday, September 9, to discuss additional resources for the City of Framingham to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Framingham.

Yesterday, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts offered supports for the top 5 communities in the state with the highest rate of infection for COVID -19.

Framingham, the community with the 6th highest rate of infection was not on the list.

SOURCE has learned the City’s Mayor and the state will meet at 10 a.m. Framingham Health Director Sam Wong is expected to attend the meeting as well.

The meeting was originally announced for 9 a.m. on September 9 by the state and state leaders, and that the Mayor’s schedule could not accommodate an earlier meeting.

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Afterwards, someone who runs the City of Framingham’s official Facebook page posted on the SOURCE’s Facebook page multiple times the Mayor “would have moved any meeting to accommodate the state as getting resources for Framingham amid the pandemic is my top priority.”

Today’s 10 a.m. meeting has been confirmed by the legislative delegation’s offices for Framingham.

“I’m thrilled that this was able to be worked out,” said City Councilor Janet Leombruno. “I have been in constant contact with state leadership since yesterday to help get this facilitated. I’m glad the meeting has been moved to this morning. Going into a long weekend, was waiting too long. Every day is too long as we battle this virus.”

“Addressing COVID-19 remains my top priority. Throughout the pandemic, I have remained in close contact with the governor and executive office of health and human services. More recently, I impressed upon them the importance of providing additional assistance for the city of Framingham to assist in COVID-19 efforts. I am glad to see a meeting between the city and the administration has been expedited to address these pressing issues. As the state Senator for Framingham and as Senate President, I stand ready, willing and able to marshal all potential state resources to assist  the city in fighting COVID-19, said Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland).

“Framingham is a beautiful community, with residents of diverse backgrounds and across every political spectrum. The deadly pandemic we now face though does not respect political boundaries, historic factions, or personality conflicts, and we all have a role to play in keeping our neighbors healthy and working towards a day where our schools and economy are again fully open. Over the last 24 hours there has been much chatter around Framingham’s rising COVID-19 numbers and the availability of additional state services. Let me share my role as one of Framingham’s state representatives. When we learned that Framingham had the sixth-highest percentage of positive cases and that additional services were being made available to the five “worst hit” communities, I reached out to my contact at the Department of Public Health for more information. I was told that additional supports were available to Framingham from the Commonwealth but they needed to be requested by the city first. I was also told that the Department of Public Health had requested a timely meeting but were told that the Mayor’s earliest availability was next Wednesday. As is my practice, I relayed that information to anyone who asked about additional state services. I was notified this morning that the meeting occurred today at 10am. While I am not sure where the breakdown of communication occurred, I am grateful that this vital meeting was expedited for the health and safety of our community. I look forward to working with my local and state colleagues to ensure that Framingham has the resources required to fight this deadly disease,” said State Rep. Jack Patrick Lewis.

“Looking at the list of additional resources in the press release, many of them could be helpful to us.  We are actively advocating to the state directly to get some of these resources for Framingham,” said Framingham Health Director Sam Wong in an email yesterday.

“I have reached out to COVID-19 Command Central for more details, but I am deeply disappointed that Framingham was not included in getting these additional important services,” said State Rep. Maria Robinson yesterday when the top 5 communities with the highest rate of the virus were included but not Framingham at #6.

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