Letter to the editor: Priorities for American Rescue Plan funds
For over a year Westmoreland County Commissioners have had $105 million from the American Rescue Plan to help alleviate the suffering caused by covid-19. The Voice of Westmoreland is dismayed that some of these funds are still being held. Here are uses within VOW priorities.
1. Mental health needs are high because of covid. Allegheny County’s Western Psychiatric Hospital supervises Resolve, a 24/7 walk-in clinic for mental health needs. The expertise of our three health companies (Excela, UPMC, AHN) could help us develop a Resolve walk-in clinic. A commissioners’ citizen planning committee can start now.
2. Our rural areas have no places to buy food and little or no transportation for groceries or health resources. Why not fund mobile food trucks to go into these areas regularly and offer county transportation for people who have health needs?
3. We need more transparency and accountability in public housing. Community outreach with residents leads me to believe residents are not respected and their needs are passed over.
We ask our commissioners to make their meetings more accessible by being held in multiple locations and at times other than working hours, with adequate sound equipment to hear speakers.
The Rev. Ron Wanless
Ligonier
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