Edward Hodkinson is a Fall River resident.

The CARES Act provides a framework and resources to allow cities, towns and states to access resources provided by the federal government to offset expenses incurred or to be expended in responding to COVID-19.

With $8 million at risk now for Fall River in accessing these funds, failure shouldn’t be an option.

As with what COVID itself has shown, if you are not smart about following the leads of scientists and health experts, people die and states get shut down. To ignore methods that could be used to effectively allocate this money to health and city projects that could relate to COVID is just ignoring the evidence.

Other communities across the country are accessing CARES monies to bolster and support their citizens and are providing a path out of problems created by the pandemic.

The CARES Act is effectively being used to help to clean up some of the public health problems that have been created by tenants and landlords dumping garbage on city streets in other locales. In Fall River, without using these monies, the cost of cleaning up city health hazards comes out of a budget that is severely strained.

I am tired of hearing the old guard in Fall River blaming COVID for the ineptitude and lack of planning and response by a city administration that still hasn’t provided a State of the City address, which was required in March. Another COVID excuse for a lack of planning, as if COVID stops people from using a computer to construct a speech.

Here’s an idea: Stop making excuses and look at and celebrate a company like Merrow manufacturing for its ability to surmount challenges presented by COVID and actually get several hundred people in Fall River hired.

Edward Hodkinson

Fall River