By STEPHANIE BARRY | The Republican | Published: April 4, 2021 (Tribune News Service) State Rep. Michael Finn recalls the last legislative breakfast he attended at the Holyoke Soldiers Home before the pandemic. It was January 2020, just weeks before an outbreak transformed the state-run facility for aging veterans into a frightening show of the power of COVID-19. The event featured the usual menu of coffee, scrambled eggs, retail politicking and speeches. While the gathering hinted at nothing of what was to come, Finn, a six-term Democrat from West Springfield, noticed an odd dynamic: Bennett Walsh, superintendent of the Soldiers Home, and Francisco Ureña, the state s secretary of veterans services, were pointedly ignoring each other.
One year after COVID outbreak at Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, questions over accountability linger
Updated 5:00 AM;
State Rep. Michael Finn recalls the last legislative breakfast he attended at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home before the pandemic.
It was January 2020, just weeks before an outbreak transformed the state-run facility for aging veterans into a frightening show of the power of COVID-19. The event featured the usual menu of coffee, scrambled eggs, retail politicking and speeches.
While the gathering hinted at nothing of what was to come, Finn, a six-term Democrat from West Springfield, noticed an odd dynamic: Bennett Walsh, superintendent of the Soldiers’ Home, and Francisco Ureña, the state’s secretary of veterans’ services, were pointedly ignoring each other.
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