This past Friday evening Mayor Robinson-Briggs, the Solaris management team, and I were invited to the 4th Ward of Plainfield to listen to the concerns dealing with health issues in the 4th ward. The comments and expressions of these residents were very touching because of the genuine nature of these expressions regarding Muhlenberg’s closing and the services at the Plainfield Health Center not being up to par. The residents acknowledge that fact that the influx of patients at the health center is higher than normal, but they will not accept this truth as an excuse for subpar health services.
One main issue that the residents of the 4th ward highlighted was transportation. A lot of the residents feel that they are not treated fairly or equally because of their geographic location. It was made clear by me, the mayor, and the management team that this sort of discriminatory practice would not persist when it comes to transportation and health services being administered. A taskforce has been assembled to dismantle these sorts of practices to ensure that equality and fairness is administered across the board, regardless of where one may live. Also, referencing the problem with transportation, we agreed on a new ambulance for the community six months ago and yet we are still waiting for final word on it.
I was happy to share with the public the news of the State of New Jersey awarding the Plainfield Health Center $644,250. These monies can certainly aim to offset concerns raised at this neighborhood meeting, as well as those raised by the city as a whole, including those which were voiced by neighboring communities. The Plainfield Health Center received more money that any other facility of its nature here in New Jersey, and we do not plan on stopping there.
As was stated at the meeting, we need to stop finger-pointing and move in the direction of unified problem-solving. The health crisis is a nation-wide crisis, which has individual affects on every level of government across the nation. Blaming the governor or any other elected official for the crisis that former President George Bush put us in is not acceptable, nor is it accurate. Therefore, a team-working effort is what is needed in this time of trial, not a critical viewpoint.
I will be meeting with the mayor and council president this week to finalize what we consider a commitment from the State and Solaris in terms of what commitments were made in the past six months. It is important to finalize these agreements because of the fact that we need to have a taskforce in place to deal with these issues and crises that our cities and State are facing when it comes to medical care. I think that if anyone has anything they feel will contribute to the solution, this taskforce will be more than willing to listen and work together. With the over $2 billion in revenue New Jersey will be receiving to help strengthen our health industry, it is clear that the President and our governor has recognized the health crisis facing this country and our State. I am also happy to see that through the strong leadership here in the City of Plainfield, the City will be benefitting from the state relief.
The next issue we are dealing with though my office, the mayor’s office, and the State, is identifying road projects and school projects in the City that are ready to go and that meet the qualifications that are set by the federal government. Commissioner Steve Diltz, Chairman of the Board of NJ TRANSIT, has been in constant communication regarding road projects that have been ready to begin work on, but were only lacking the financial backing. Now that the money is beginning to flow in this direction, we want to make sure that Plainfield residents are considered first for these Plainfield jobs. Hopefully, this sort of initiative will allow for us to offshoot the spiking local unemployment rate of ten percent.
Already from the school construction bonding money from last year, Plainfield’s school district will be receiving over $17 million. We are now looking to move ahead with the superintendent of schools to delegate which projects we can advance. We are looking to improve our community from Good, to Better, to BEST!
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