The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, issued a proclamation Thursday claiming temporary emergency powers “to mitigate public safety concerns” as false claims about Haitian immigrants continue to stoke bomb threats and the specter of violence in the community.

Springfield Mayor Ron Rue has spent over a week scrambling to respond to a wave of bomb threats while subtly noting how the tab to keep people safe is growing daily. “This is costing the city. We’re definitely in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expense.