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Date: 3/31/2020
GREATER WESTFIELD – Local boards of health have been on the front lines helping to get information to towns and organize responses to the COVID-19 outbreak. Last week, the state Department of Public Health (DPH) bolstered their efforts with nearly $250,000 in additional funding, in partnership with the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC).
PVPC planners have now conducted 31 municipal needs assessments for boards of health – the local governing bodies charged with protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of a given community’s residents – to determine how this state funding will be distributed.
The checks were mailed and, in many cases, personally driven out to the respective communities by PVPC personnel. “Middlefield, Huntington, Worthington, and Cummington were among the towns I personally delivered checks to,” said Patrick Beaudry, PVPC manager of public affairs.
Among the grants and amounts awarded were $2,700 to Blandford; $2,500 to Chester; $2,800 to Granville; $2,600 to Huntington; $2,100 to Middlefield; $2,300 to Montgomery; $2,600 to Russell; $4,000 to Southampton; $6,700 to Southwick, $1,100 to Tolland, and $9,100 to Westfield.
The funds will support surveillance and case identification; monitoring of travelers; data management related to COVID-19 and activities; isolation and quarantine; surge staffing, including costs to cover overtime and backfill for town employees or contractors; risk communications support; and public health coordination with healthcare systems.
An additional $250,000 is anticipated from the Department of Public Health in the near future to further support these local efforts by way of the Commission.
Elizabeth Massa of the Chester Board of Health said they received the $2,500 for emergency COVID-19 response and are anticipating another $2,500. “The Board has also signed a contract with the Northampton Board of Health and Hampshire Department of Public Health in order to hire a public health nurse in case our Board of Health gets sick and is forced to quarantine ourselves,” Massa said.
“As of today (March 27) there are 0 cases in Chester. We continue to spread the word of social distancing as the virus is expected to peak in 3 weeks,” Massa added.
PVPC Executive Director Kimberly H. Robinson said the partnership with DPH fits with the organization’s mission. “The hardworking planners of the PVPC entered public service to support our communities in good times and bad and we’re honored to be able to work with state officials to get these precious dollars into the hands of our on-the-ground partners in local boards of health across the Valley this week,” said Robinson.
The PVPC is the state-designated regional planning agency for the 43 cities and towns of Hampden and Hampshire Counties.