MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The Meridian Township Board held a virtual meeting on Tuesday, May 5th due to the on-going COVID-19 crisis and Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe" executive order that is in effect until May 15th.

The Supervisor and Board members, along with staff, participated from remote locations with Meridian Township Fire Chief Mike Hamel giving an update on the coronavirus task force and says, “I want to thank a lot of people in the community for a lot of resources they’ve helped us with. Masks, suits, and including food for the fire and police department first responders. It’s amazing for the community to come together, and work together. I also want to thank the community for all they’ve done from self isolating, wearing masks and maintaining the requirements that have come down. It’s not an easy thing.”

Manager Frank Walsh also reminded residents that there is a COVID hotline. The question asked was, “What do our numbers look like in Meridian Township for people who have COVID-19?” Hamel says, “For Meridian Township they basically have us at 41-51 individuals, a lot less than 1% of our total residents. If anyone wants to look at that it’s on Ingham County’s website and it is on their COVID-19 dashboard, and lists all kinds of information above and beyond the zip code.” Hamel said.

Meridian Township officials have been working on a reopening plan. Hamel says, “Deputy Director Derek Perry has been working on that to try to get to the new norm when we are able to open up our doors, so we can continue to protect our residents and Township employees when we do open. Whatever the new norm is, we’re going to continue to follow it. There’s been a lot of changes, a lot of learning experiences and like many of you, we’ve never dealt with anything like this in our lives. Manager Walsh, Deputy Director Perry, Chief Plaga, HR Director Marx, and even Brandie Yates in Communications have done a great job trying to keep the citizens informed with everything that is going on and many others within the Township that have been really out there trying to work through the new norm. We’re going to get through and we’re going to make it and everything is going to be good.”