The Pandemic Has Made a Big Problem That Much Worse
Help Wanted
Long before COVID-19 arrived in Western Mass., businesses across many sectors were struggling to find adequate supplies of good help. But now, just as the economy seems ready to surge, the problem, fueled increasingly by unemployment benefits that are conspiring to keep workers on the sidelines, is getting considerably worse, with no real end in sight.
Steve Corrigan has been in the landscaping business for more than 40 years now, and for most of that time, finding good help has been a challenge to one degree or another.
But he says he’s never seen anything quite like this.
“Baby steps.”
That’s what Nate Costa, president of the American Hockey League’s Springfield Thunderbirds, says the team is taking as it looks to return to the ice and its place as a huge part of Springfield’s economic engine this fall.
Such steps include selling season tickets, trying to secure some attractive dates from the league from home games, doing some preliminary planning of promotions, and putting together a new staff after most members of the old one furloughed at the height of COVID-19 found employment elsewhere. Most, but not all, of these assignments would be part of a normal late April for the team but this is certainly not a normal April, nor a normal year.
‘We had to go big’: US Rep. Richard Neal, Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano lay out path to recovery at Springfield Chamber event
Updated Apr 29, 2021;
SPRINGFIELD Thirteen months ago, the ill-understood threat known as COVID-19 loomed over the Springfield Regional Chamber’ annual Outlook luncheon.
The event at the MassMutual Center ballroom included hastily set-up hand sanitizing stations the first time those had been seen locally. Visitors were not yet instructed to put on face masks.
Like so many events since then, the chamber’s 2021 Outlook event was held online to avoid spreading the virus. But with vaccines available and COVID-19 cases in decline, speakers Wednesday highlighted the steps businesses and governments are taking to recover.
2 classic rock acts eye dates at MassMutual Center in Springfield
Today 7:39 AM
Although there has been no formal announcement from either MGM Springfield or the MassMutual Center, two classic rock bands are planning dates in downtown Springfield.
Molly Hatchet has posted an Oct. 9 show at at the MassMutual Center on its website. The Southern rockers are readying a new live album, “Battleground.”
Quiet Riot is also listing a March 26, 2022 show at the Springfield arena on its website. The metal band is hitting the road following the death last year of drummer Frankie Banali.
The concert trade paper Pollstar has logged both Springfield shows in its online database.
3:15
With a majority of new coronavirus infections occurring in younger people in Springfield, Massachusetts, efforts are planned to encourage vaccinations.
Fifty-nine percent of the new COVID-19 cases in Springfield last week were in people age 30 and younger, while people age 51 and older accounted for just 16 percent of the most recent infections.
There was a five percent drop from the previous week in new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Springfield residents age 51 and older, according to Health and Human Services Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris.
Those ages groups that we see that have been vaccinated we are seeing those numbers in those age groups lower, said Caulton-Harris.