Who is the mayor of new jersey
New Jersey Mayor David Fried Discusses Covid-19
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so hi this is Eric Grable I'm a managing
editor for da flyer news and we are
speaking today for a couple of minutes
with the mayor of Robbinsville New
Jersey
David freed thank you for taking a
couple of minutes today mr. mayor to
speak with us we are going to be
focusing on sort of the small government
local steps that are being taken in
actions that are being implemented
regarding the Cova 19 pandemic I guess
my first question is what are some of
the steps that you have taken in your
community to assist maybe the local
healthcare providers or the community of
large and you know testing and dealing
with this whole thing and I guess I can
just let you you know explain sure we
were fortunate when we saw this sort of
breaking loose in China we I had a
little bit of a feeling that this might
turn into a bigger issue than perhaps we
had thought about so I actually called
our our team together and we we began
purchasing supplies ordering supplies
cleaning surprised you know PPE
equipment and started really preparing
for you know what may be coming so you
know back in early January we were we
were all of the curve we had quite a bit
of you know equipment available we had
quite a bit of product available in
cleaning supplies available so we were
very fortunate there and we started
immediately providing it to you know
quite a number of the local authorities
we started providing and sharing it with
their towns we started providing and
sharing it with the county we were also
very lucky and that we had a very large
be a PS temple in our town mm-hmm and
they've been great community partners
with us and they were also being able to
give us a tremendous amount of donations
of masks gloves cleaning equipment so
we've been able to really stay in front
of you know a lot of what what's
happening and also be you know
source for the rest of the county in
terms of having these supplies and
having them be available to our
residents so once we got all of our you
know sort of frontline workers equipped
with PPE we then started to hand it out
to our seniors we'd also started trying
to provide cleaning supplies to those
who are infected and then just this week
we started handing out masks to the
general population or our residents who
were out between 9:30 and then noon
every day giving out mass to the
residents so that everyone can can be
protected ok great so I'm actually gonna
kind of skip the next question do you
use a lot of water
what are some of the challenges that you
face I know you said you guys got out
ahead of the curve a little early but I
mean have there been roadblocks or there
have been anything that's been you know
annoying in the process what have you
lots of annoying things so the biggest
challenge is you know that we had you
know one of one of the things that we
got early was the wisdom you know we had
a large supply of the malaria medicine
brought into the region but the governor
decided to change the rules on that
malaria medicine well it doesn't work
for everyone it does work for some
people at least that's been the reports
that we've gotten and they changed the
rules that you could not receive the
malaria medicine unless you had tested
positive a challenge that we had you
know least locally was was I'm very very
difficult to get tested so we had the
medicine we knew did it worked at least
for some portion of the population but
we couldn't get that population tested
therefore we couldn't get the medicine
to the right people that was very very
frustrating so then we set up a local
testing site in town so Robbinsville is
actually the only town in Mercer County
right now that has its own own local
testing in it the county is testing for
the county but there are two sites in
Mercer County right now we're actually
one of them okay sure so on the flip
side of that um what do you think has
worked if anything exceptionally well or
maybe better than you had anticipated
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you know the violent terrorism and the
donations have been incredible you know
I've been trying to communicate with our
community via Facebook which has turned
into a real good vehicle for me not only
to let people know what's happening but
also to be able to ask for help we've
been asking for cleaning supplies we've
been asking for volunteers you know once
you have an entire family with the with
the virus it gets difficult for them to
go out so we've now got volunteers
willing to shop for families and even
little things that you might take for
granted walking your dog and doing some
other things when the entire family is
infected these little things become more
and more difficult so the the
volunteerism in our community has been
incredible every time I put out a post
and ask for things I immediately get
responses the donations have been
incredible we're seeing you know the
need for food increased dramatically in
fact our Meals on Wheels has now polled
you know our food pantry is being used
more often than we've ever seen before
so we're starting to see that the needs
of those who have been out of work for a
long period of time you know start to
mount up
you know I was not a fan of the closure
of the parks I think people need to go
out and exercise we kept our local parks
open I was a little disappointed to see
the the state in the county parks closed
you know my biggest concerns right now
or you know the food supply making sure
that that you know continues and that
you know we can continue to get the
supplies that we need and also you know
people being able to have the resources
to to be able to just provide themselves
the normal necessities food etc sure do
you have any advice that you could share
with from the experience here with other
you know mayors of maybe a town similar
size are there best practices that
you've been following or is there
anything that you've kind of dealt with
in the moment and said you know this is
this looks like it's a good way to go
we know I listen if you can you know if
you can you know find a way to
communicate effectively with the with
the community that that is number one
I've been lucky you know most of the
town follows my facebook post and I've
been communicating very well the more
you know the more you communicate with
people I think the better off you're
going to be mmm
you know bad news doesn't get any better
better to get it out in front of it
people know what's happening and then
you know being willing to ask for help
me none of us are infallible and when I
find every time I I need help I put it
out there and you know my residents help
me figure it out we got a lot of you
know very very smart people in our
community so you don't have to do it all
yourself you know ask for help ask for
volunteers and you'd be surprised you
know how quickly you can you know be
able to respond to things I think we're
probably one of the only towns in the
region they're literally handing out
mass every resident I mean we were able
to do so because we you know we
literally got in front of as much as we
possibly could and we asked for help and
you know this one knew that one and we
were able to to be able to purchase get
donations and being able to provide
things for our residents um just a
couple more here so is there any one
kind of the provider of the care
provider side of that what do you have
any advice for any look you know medical
personnel or hospitals or you know care
facilities that would be partnering with
local governments is there anything that
they can do to enhance the the two-way
camaraderie and make sure that
everything works as well as it again you
know we've been blessed I mean we had a
local connection with our one of our
pharmacies who had a connection to bring
in the malaria medicine to help treat
our residents we've had a number of
doctors sharing with us what seems to be
working with their patients
we've had a ocean care center partner
with the township and they were actually
willing to put a testing facility
on-site right at the municipal building
where they actually did the testing we
provided the logistics as well as you
know so the traffic control and
everything else so we've had done a
number of public you know private
partnerships working with our churches
you know our our pastors in this
community of more like generals and we
sort of work
donations and also making sure that
those who have the virus are taken care
of and then lastly you know making sure
that those who have the virus don't feel
like they're being about or don't feel
like they're somehow you know being
excluded from your community and we had
a lot of people who you know wanted to
know you know who it was where it was
and you know we had a lot of residents
who had the virus who were feeling you
know like almost like they were wearing
The Scarlet Letter
mm-hmm and you know we immediately tried
to change the tone of that because you
know those who are coming out of
recovery and we've literally got as many
people right now coming out of recovery
as we have going in blue which is a
tremendous statistic these are our new
superheroes these are the folks that I
can send on the front lines these are
the folks who are now donating their
antibodies you know from their blood
these are the folks that I can send to
those who have viruses you know
currently going on and can go shopping
so right you know I really think that
the more we you know communicate with
those who have the virus and show them
that we're here from them is going to
encourage them to to pay it forward and
be there for the next person I know that
our residents who are speaking to people
who have gone through the virus who have
just recently tested positive I found
that to be a really really meaningful
thing to be able to talk to someone
who's gone through it couldn't sort of
share with them some of what's going to
happen that has been something that you
know those who are going through the
virus right now have been very grateful
for okay great and so I guess my last
question would just be was there
anything we were kind of chatting about
here that I didn't hit or that you
didn't hit kind of in your responses
that you wanted to just make clear or
any any special messaging out there that
you had mine I think you're the biggest
thing right now is for people to
remember that this will be over and that
will rebuild our lives that will get our
jobs back then we're going to recover
and you know to continue to just treat
one another as well as you possibly can
I think a lot of people have been inside
for too long people are starting to get
frustrated so just you know to remember
to be patient count to five before you
talk especially online and you know use
kind words I know it sounds silly but
yeah well as as people have been inside
there you know the frustration is
building and you know we just need to
take a breath take a step back and
remember that
you know we're all in this together and
you know hopefully we'll look back on
this and learn a lot of lessons but we
will look back on this and you know
things will improve
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