PETERSHAM — New Englanders are well known for watching out for their neighbors, and that reputation was reinforced Wednesday night when a number of town officials and community volunteers met with the Petersham Selectboard.
The emergency meeting was called so each could get a handle on exactly how the town was responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Certainly, we all know each other,” said board Chair Nancy Allen. “We’ve all been through a lot together on many, many levels. But there’s one thing we’ve never all done together; we’ve never all worked on a pandemic together. And, hopefully, we’ll do this only once in our lives.
“What we do have is our collective knowledge of each other. We all know how hard everyone works for the town. We know the residents. And we all have a lot of faith in each other and the residents. We greatly appreciate everyone’s individual expertise, and we’re all going to work, hopefully, in a collaborative manner as needed.”
While it may not be an issue in the forefront of peoples’ minds, Board of Health Chair Bob Pasic discussed one of the favorite gathering spots for residents to trade information, gossip and pleasantries.
“We’d like to ask, if you’re using the transfer station,” he said, “to please move along. It’s not really a time to congregate, although we’re all social people and we all enjoy talking to one another, we really do need to move through there and say our hellos with a wave and keep our distance for now.”
Pasic, a registered nurse, did say information he is receiving indicates the incidence of testing is starting to tick upward. He said the more testing that is done, the more obvious it’s becoming just how widespread the virus is.
“Being in Petersham,” he said, “I’d say we’re kind of lucky because we do have a lot of distance between us. But the worst is yet to come. I’m hoping our area here in the North Quabbin doesn’t see the severity that the big cities are going to see. But by all working together and following what the CDC, our governor, and everybody says, we should be OK.”
When asked if she had a list of any seniors who may be particularly at risk, Council on Aging Chair Kay Berry said, “No, I don’t really have a list. All of the seniors in our lunch group have someone who can help them right now. So, we’re not really concerned about that because someone is looking after them.”
She said senior citizens are being informed about how to safeguard themselves from the virus via the COA newsletter.
“We’ve been relatively quiet,” said Chief of Police Dana Cooley. “Thank God, nobody has called us with flu-like symptoms to transport to the hospital. We are getting calls for welfare checks. People are nervous. They have not heard from their relatives for a day or so, so they’re calling us and we’re going out and checking on them. Knock on wood, everybody’s been fine and they’ve returned their calls to their relatives. Anybody who’s worried, call us and we’ll run out and make sure they’re OK.
“You know, we all heard something like this could happen. I don’t think we took it seriously, and now it’s here. It is real.”
“Like Chief Cooley said,” Fire Chief Dana Robinson added, “we’ve been fortunate. We haven’t had a lot of medical calls. All the dispatchers have been trained and given protocols for screening any medical calls before we respond to them. If there’s any suspicion of the virus on any call, they have code words they will broadcast to us so that we can mask-up.
“We have a limited number of masks. We have a few of those. If the calls stay down like they have so far, we’ll be good. I’ve told the guys, if you do go out, just use as much precaution as you can and follow the guidelines.”
“The town just learned this morning,” said Allen, “that we did get a first grant — the Board of Health — through the state Department of Public Health. We did receive a $2,000 grant to be used through the Board of Health. It’s the first of what will probably be a set of disbursements to come out at the state level. So, that’s some good news to end up on.”
Allen said circumstances will dictate when a meeting similar to that held Wednesday will be held again.
Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.