As many of you may already be aware, the State Senate has reached out to request assistance in procurement and production of critical need medical personal protection equipment, including masks, gloves, gowns, and eye protection. There is also a very critical shortage of ventilator equipment, urgent need to adapt the current equipment, including ventilators to work with more than one patient and to produce large numbers.

These critical needs have been identified as the Covid-19 crisis is beginning to accelerate in Massachusetts. The national strategic supplies have only been able to deliver to states about 10% of requests. Two Boston hospitals already have nearly 100 staff (each) on quarantine from exposures to individuals carrying the virus. The CDC has revised criteria to allow a wide variety of respirators along with less protective masks to be used in medical care.

Would you reach out to contacts in your circle who may have production capacity, stores that could be shared, or technical knowledge and skills that could assist.

The State Senators for our region are Senators Mike Moore and Ryan Fattman. Their emails are Michael.Moore@masenate.gov , Ryan.Fattman@masenate.gov but you may also reach out to Jeannie at jhebert@blackstonevalley.org.

Hello Friend:

Tonight, Sunday, March 22nd at 5:30pm, I will be hosting a telephone town hall and briefing to provide updates and help answer your questions on the coronavirus. We will also discuss what you can do to protect yourself and your family, and what steps federal, state, and local officials are taking to keep our community safe.

It’s important to me that I hear from you. This telephone town hall is open to everyone, and you can dial in starting at 5:30pm by calling (855) 859-6853. Please forward this email to anyone you know who may be interested. We will be joined on the call by Dr. Eric Dickson from UMass Memorial Health Care and Bob Nelson from the United States Small Business Administration.

Finally, my team has created a coronavirus resources page that we are committed to updating daily, until this crisis is over, to give you up-to-date facts that are specific to our community. And of course, you should always feel free to call one of my offices if you need help.

More Soon,

James P. McGovern

Member of Congress

Good afternoon:

To help with the increased demand on the unemployment system and the increased volume or your staff, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development and the Department of Unemployment Assistance will be hosting virtual town hall meetings. We will take all who sign up through a step by step process of achieving a successful unemployment claim. We will also be taking questions from claimants across the Commonwealth. Applicants should file for benefits at https://www.mass.gov/unemployment-insurance-ui-online .

The first virtual town hall will be held this Sunday, March 22nd, at 3:30pm. Sign up information for the virtual town hall is available at www.mass.gov/unemployment/townhall. A Spanish language town hall will be held on Tuesday at 9am and additional language town halls shortly thereafter.

To further help claimants through the process of applying for benefits, we have made specific web page updates that include the latest guidance for employee qualifications and additional resources like contact forms and a COVID-19 specific unemployment claim handbook that can be viewed at https://www.mass.gov/resource/information-on-unemployment-and-coronavirus-covid-19.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any questions.

We thank you for your continued patience and we hope you are able to join us for one of the town halls

“As of now we will continue to stay open normal business hours for take out only! 11-7 Mon-Fri. 11-3 on Saturday!…If you haven’t already, please sign up for our “weekly specials” through our website. Along with our specials we will also be keeping you updated of any changes as they happen. For right now, we are doing our best in keeping our staff and customers as safe as possible and appreciate your business!!

At this time we are asking our customers to please call in your orders, pay over the phone and we will bring your order to your car. This will help eliminate the foot traffic in our cafe. We are doing our best to stay stocked with our freezer items, smoothies, wraps etc. and will continue the Build A Bowl as long as we can!

Thank you all for your support during this time! May you all stay healthy!”

The Green Plate, LLC.

167 Church Street

Whitinsville, MA 01588

(774) 813-0200

“We are open. Many of our patients are fragile, so we are offering to do what we can via phone, etc. If patients or family members wish, they can drive here, we will go outside, take hearing aids, bring them inside to clean and service them as best we can. Then bring them back to the car. Many aids can be programmed wirelessly, so the patient and aids can stay in the car. We ask them to have their cell phones to talk as I do this. We can adjust hearing aid settings without them coming inside.

For our elders, we want to be sure they can hear to keep them safe. So we will do our best to care for them with the least exposure risk possible. We can advise on phone access, closed captioning, visual fire alarms from afar without them having to come in.

Hearing testing and direct contact visits are still available, but we am triaging by phone. For pediatric evaluations, we are following the school closure schedule. If children are having hearing aid issues, I will triage by phone. Always available to talk by phone, email, etc.

Our Facebook page has resources to help people and I am updating it daily as good ideas come up”

Hear Joy Audiology, LLC

43 Main St.

South Grafton, MA 01560

Phone – 774-293-1515

Fax – 774-293-1315

Whittier Farms is currently offering call-in ordering with “curbside” pick-up. Our website has been updated to reflect our most up-to-date product availability. https://www.whittiers.com/product-availability

Whittier Farms Inc.

90 Douglas Rd.

Sutton, MA 01590

508-865-1096

Keeping Agriculture

Alive and Well Since 1945

That’s right, you can now purchase your items online and have them delivered curbside to your car! In an effort to promote a healthy store environment and help you limit your exposure to others, we’ve made curbside pickup a new option for those of you who shop online.

Here’s how it works:

~Shop online at shopkoopman.com for all of your needs

~Choose your local Koopman Lumber store for pickup

~Drive to your Koopman Lumber and park in the parking lot

~Kick back, turn on the radio, and wait for a team member to bring out your items

Koopman Lumber Company

665 Church Street

Whitinsville, MA 01588

Multiple Locations: Whitinsville, Uxbridge, North Grafton, Sharon, Hudson, Milford Paint, Andover, Distribution Center

With the extraordinary measures being taken to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in communities across the Commonwealth, there is no doubt that disruption is occurring in our everyday routines and schedules. To those of you who have supported local agriculture by buying from your local farm, farmer’s market, and nursery or greenhouse, we thank you for your commitment to buying local and supporting our farmers in Massachusetts. We ask that in these challenging times, as industries across the board are being severely impacted, you continue to support the agricultural sector in Massachusetts.

March is “Massachusetts Maple Month”, and we want to remind you that you can still enjoy warm maple syrup on pancakes or your favorite maple treat at home. Many of our state’s maple producers offer sales of syrup at their farm, farmers’ markets, and online. To find sugarhouses statewide, click here. For more information on Massgrown, Farmersmarkets, CSA Farms, click here

Calabria Ristorante

Creedon and Co., Inc.

Dunkin Donuts/Kookla Inc.

Harry’s Famous Pizza

Lowell’s Restaurant

Red Rock Grill and Bar

Valley Café

Village House of Pizza, Inc.

West End Creamery & Family Farm

Christopher’s Homemade Ice Cream, LLC

Sixty Elm d/b/a A & D Pizza

Maison de Manger

Green Plate, LLC, The

Hunter’s Grille & Tap @ The Grafton Inn

Coca-Cola

B. GOOD

New England Steak and Seafood

110 Grill

Grill 122