Update on COVID-19
March 13, 2020
William
G. Keegan, Jr., ICMA-CM,
Town
Manager
508-543-1219
Pauline Zajdel
Board of Health Director
508-543-1207
As of this morning, there continues to remain no
reported cases in Foxborough of the COVID-19 Virus. School and Town Offices remain open for now
but that is subject change as the Town will continue to follow the direction of
the State in determining how we will be operating in the next few weeks.
We continue to have close contact with all major
operating departments in determining if we need to shift our focus of
operations. We are now limiting any
travel outside of the Offices and have cancelled or postponed most outside
functions for the time being until the concerns over the virus begin to
regress. We encourage residents to
contact the Town if you have any specific questions that you may have but we do
encourage residents to visit our website (www.foxboroughma.gov) or call
instead of visiting the Town or School facilities to try and limit any
potential exposure to yourself or to members of the Town and School staff. It remains important to remind residents that
we are here to support the operation of your local government but we, like all
employers, are taking protective and precautionary steps so that all staff
members remain healthy.
Our goal and mission remains to provide as much
service as possible in this challenging environment. However, at some point we may be forced to
scale back and alter our service delivery efforts to protect both the public
and the staff members providing the service. If that were to happen it will only be
temporary until the COVID-19 scenario has subsided. We are
presently evaluating all options to determine the best and most reasonable course
of action. As this situation evolves, we
will continue to take reasonable steps for the continuation of local government
services.
The planned meeting of the Capital Committee is still
on for tomorrow morning (March 14, 2020).
The meeting only involves a few people and does not pose any significant
exposure risk. This meeting will begin at 8:30 AM in the Gala Meeting Room at
Town Hall and will be televised live on Foxborough Cable Access. Out of an abundance of caution we do not
encourage residents to attend but rather watch the meeting live on
television. Only those individuals who will
be presenting project details are being asked to attend in an effort to reduce
any unintended exposure risks.
If anyone has a concern over a project after it has
been presented and acted on by the Committee, they can send an e-mail to the
Town Manager at bkeegan@foxboroughma.gov and we
will be glad to address it or share it with the Committee. Because of Open Meeting Law limitations, I
can only share information with members of the Committee. The Committee cannot
deliberate over any item without the benefit of a posted public meeting. If at any time a concern is presented that
rises to the level of holding another meeting, the Town Manager as Chairman of
this Committee, has the ability to call for an extra meeting so that specific
concern can be discussed with the full Committee.
In other news, Governor Baker enacted an emergency
measure last night (March 12, 2020) that allows cities and towns to conduct
meetings in a virtual manner. Prior to
this action, cities and towns who had previously adopted the Remote Meeting
Provision of MGL Chapter 30A, Subsection 20(d) were required to at least have a
quorum of the committee members present at the meeting in order to allow the
remaining members to participate remotely.
Based on the Governor’s action last night, the quorum requirement has been
temporarily suspended. This means that all members could participate
remotely. Foxborough has never accepted
the statutory provision that allows for remote meeting participation. However given the current circumstances, that
consideration will be made by the Board of Selectmen at their meeting on Tuesday
night (March 17, 2020). If that is
approved by the Board, we will then look at the logistically steps that need to
be taken over the course of the next week.
For now, business in Foxborough largely remains
unchanged; though we remain vigilant and cognizant of the fact that things
could be changing rapidly over the course of the next few days. We will continue to keep you advised of any
changes as they become available to us.
Please remain safe during this unprecedented time.
William
G. Keegan, Jr., ICMA-CM Town Manager
Pauline
Zajdel Board
of Health Director