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Date: 4/7/2020
CHESTER – The Chester Board of Health has been actively working to keep the town safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 4, Chester had five residents in quarantine who were scheduled to come out on April 6 due to no symptoms; two in isolation, one also due to come out; and one death, reported BOH clerk Elizabeth Massa.
Massa said she, BOH Chair Nicholas Chiusano and Gregory Harrison have found and purchased 200 blue medical masks for residents which will be distributed to seniors, town hall workers including inspectors and transfer station workers by April 11.
She said the masks are not N95 grade, which are strictly for medical personnel during this crisis.
“We continuously search for masks on eBay and other online sources because all PPE is impossible to find,” Massa said
Massa recently celebrated a donation from Home Depot for the town of Chester. “Thank you to Matthew Canty, Nick Niedzieldski, our very own Greg Harrison [of the] Chester BOH who picked it up and everyone from Westfield Home Depot for donating much needed PPE including gloves, tyvek suits and masks to the town of Chester Board of Health,” read a post on Facebook.
Massa said the Home Depot donated four tyvek suits, four face masks and a box of rubber gloves to the town. She said the Board of Health has been attending to the sick by going to people’s houses who are isolated and quarantined, bringing them food and picking up their trash, which she added is why they need the equipment.
She said the donation helps because the BOH has no budget apart from the transfer station, which is facing an increase of $5,000 in recycling costs. “We are very grateful to the Home Depot for considering the small town of Chester for a donation,” Massa said.
Another donation Chester received was for a free public health nurse from the Mass Health Officers Association. “Six weeks ago, I was scrambling, reaching out to the public health community for assistance for the town. We have applied for and received a free public health nurse. Thank her, she's a volunteer much like us, I jumped for joy last week receiving that phone call,” Massa wrote.
Town Administrator Kathe Warden and Massa are also applying for grants from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency to reimburse out of pocket expenses for the face masks. Massa said she will participate in three conference calls this week.
Effective April 1, the transfer station will be one car entry at a time, with instructions to wait at the gate for the car in front of to leave before pulling in. They are not accepting demolition or electronics; the swap shop is closed, and they are not selling bag stickers and taking no cash transactions at this time, Massa said. They are taking rubbish and cardboard, plastic and glass recycling only.
Massa also thanked the Chester DPW for sanitizing Town Hall and the entire dump last week.