Pressure is being put on Governor Charlie Baker and the Massachusetts legislature to provide state funding for a renovated and expanded Holyoke Soldiers' Home this year.
A coalition that includes former superintendent Paul Barabani says despite long-documented unsafe conditions at the facility, the state has not committed to a 35-percent matching funding of a project that would be 65-percent funded through a VA grant.
The coalition, which has organized an online petition that has gotten over a thousand signatures, says a lack of appropriate space at the HSH appears to have been a contributing factor in a coronavirus outbreak which has killed dozens of veterans.
Meantime, residents who support the facility will rally at the corner or Beech and Northampton Streets urging the Governor to fund a rehab of the facility which the state would only put up roughly a third of the money.
(Photo Credit: John Baibak, WHYN News)