Mayor: Government Shutdown Could Pose 'Over $1 Million in Problems for the City of Melrose'

If the federal government's partial shutdown becomes a prolonged affair, it could be "very disruptive" to local programs and services and could pose "well over $1 million in problems for the City of Melrose," Mayor Rob Dolan said in an interview with Melrose Patch on Tuesday.

Several services offered by the city could be affected by the government shutdown, including Title III programs such as Meals on Wheels and transportation for seniors to get to medical appointments, according to Dolan.

"Meals on Wheels is delivered through a third party called the Mystic Valley Elder Services, and they deliver hundreds of meals a day to senior citizens in the City of Melrose," Dolan said. "Many of them are homebound. They also deliver frozen meals for people to have in their refrigerator for the weekends.

"The transportation program is a program in which the city is reimbursed for medical appointment rides. Extensive rides (are provided) for people undergoing chemotherapy or dialysis," he said, noting that more than 8,000 rides are provided to seniors annually.

The city receives "significant funding" for the Franklin Early Childhood Center via the Title I program, Dolan said.

"I’m concerned about early intervention programs...and special education intervention in our elementary schools and the ECC which is paid for by Medicaid reimbursement, as well as early intervention money from the federal government," said the mayor.

Melrose was able to establish their own ambulance service thanks in part to a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant, according to Dolan. The grant "allowed us to hire eight firefighters to implement our ambulance program and we’re still getting 75 percent funding for those men," he added.

Other concerns raised by the mayor include veterans that rely on the V.A. for their medical care, school lunch programs and the city's emergency management program, as FEMA provides funding to help those affected by flooding.

"There are some longer term things I’m concerned about, but today those are the things I’m concerned about because we know that we’re not going to shut down any of those things, but if payment is delayed or minimized in any way that’s going to have a real negative effect (and create) well over $1 million of problems for the City of Melrose," Dolan said. "The sequester alone we lost almost $150,000 and that was limited, but these programs could take a much bigger hit."

The mayor hopes the government will come to a resolution soon before programs are significantly affected.

"My hope is there will be some common sense that will prevail here, but this (government shutdown) is only the second time this has ever happened so those are some of my initial concerns," he said, referring to local programs that could take a hit. "For the people with those services, our hope is that we’ll be able to continue all those things, but at what expense? At the expense of other programs temporarily, not permanently."