The Ramada Inn, at the corner of West Main and Church streets, closed late in 2022. It is slated to be demolished as part of a larger plan to turn the adjacent Xenia Towne Square into a new Market District.
Merriman said the city has had no such conversations about refugees in Springfield, and has “neither the resources nor the desire to participate in any effort to relocate or house refugees or illegal aliens.”
Springfield has been struggling to adjust after 12,000 to 15,000 Haitian immigrants arrived in the city in the past four years. The vast majority of them are in the United States legally through a program where they can apply for Temporary Protected Status, allowing them to live and eventually work here.
While one social media commenter questioned how Merriman’s lack of “desire” to house refugees fit with Xenia’s “City of Hospitality” nickname, Merriman had harsh words for both the federal government and those who spread false information, calling the latter conduct “pathetic and dangerous.”
“What the federal government has allowed to happen with the refugee crisis in Springfield is tragic; making up stories about this situation to elicit public outrage or induce panic is even worse,” he wrote.
Merriman called social media platforms the “wild west of the digital age,” and said users should be highly skeptical of anonymous posts making outlandish claims.”
“We encourage citizens to help police this type of immature behavior by not buying into the nonsense, getting facts from legitimate sources and reporting these posts,” he said.
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