Mount Washington, MA

Select Board Meeting Agenda

7 pm Monday October 18, 2021 at Town Hall

Please click the link below to join the webinar:

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• Approval of Minutes from October 4th meeting
• Sign Vendor and Payroll warrants
• Gravel Road Project updates
• Highway Dept Matters: Goals for next two weeks
• Mount Washington Broadband network – updates
• Egremont Fire expenses – Chris Blum’s spreadsheet
• Select Board Management Information Progress Update
• Animal Control petition follow-up
• Citizen Speak Time

Assessor Meeting
Wednesday October 13, 2021
5PM
Town Hall
– Continue with tax recap work.
-Check the mail.
– Any other business that comes before the board.

Tom Furcht
Jeb Rong
Vicki Torrico
Board of Assessors

Mount Washington Board of Health

Update on COVID 19

We are just a few weeks past Governor Baker’s announcement that officially ended most of the Health Emergency regulations in Massachusetts.

Current data for the two-week period ending July 29th indicate that the number of NEW positive cases for Berkshire County more than doubled from the previous two weeks (22 to 48). The highest number of new positive cases is in the 20-29 age group, next highest is 30-39 age group, and the third highest is the 40-49 age group. The 20-29 age group is more than 50% higher than the next highest group. As of July 29^th, 90.1% of the medical/surgical beds in Massachusetts are occupied and 76% of the ICU beds are occupied. As we progressed for the next week the numbers have kept going up. This information (and more) is available at https://www.publichealthwm.org.  The Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts is an excellent, up-to-date website with graphics and data that you can understand. Check it out!

What is the message?

The most important message is that this health crisis is still with us and is affecting a lot of people across the country. If you are vaccinated, we believe that you have a significantly better chance of surviving a COVID 19 or VARIANT infection. Well over 90% of the DEATHS from COVID infections are unvaccinated individuals.

If you are not vaccinated: the CDC, the Massachusetts Department of Health and the Mount Washington Board of Health encourage you to get vaccinated. It’s free and widely available.

If you are vaccinated: we thank you for doing what we can to limit the spread of this disease. We agree with the CDC and MDPH that wearing a mask when you are in a crowd – at the grocery store, farmer’s market, any public gathering is vital.

Limiting exposure, even for vaccinated individuals, helps everyone. We know that earlier this month most of the patients in the hospital for COVID care were unvaccinated, but hospitals are now seeing more vaccinated COVID patients as well. The long-term outcome for vaccinated patients who are sick from the variant

seems to be better than for those who are not vaccinated, but some are still sick enough to be hospitalized.

Here are the updates to the CDC recommendations as of July 27, 2021:

• Fully vaccinated people should wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission. Transmission Zones may be viewed at CDC.gov. Currently, Berkshire County is listed as MODERATE. Hampden, Plymouth, Suffolk, Bristol, Hampshire Counties are SUBSTANTIAL; Nantucket, Barnstable Counties are HIGH.
• Fully vaccinated people might choose to wear a mask regardless of the level of transmission, particularly if they are immunocompromised or at increased risk for severe disease from COVID 19, or if they have someone in their household who is immunocompromised, at increased risk of severe disease or not fully vaccinated (i.e. children under 12)
• Fully vaccinated people who have a known exposure to someone with suspected or confirmed CCOVID 19 to be tested 3-5 days after exposure, and to wear a mask in public indoor settings for 14 days or until they receive a negative test result.
• Universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools; regardless of vaccination status.

The CDC website identifies all 50 states and counties as to risk level. Check before you travel!

In order to help us all to stay connected during power outages, severe storms or another type of emergency, it is wise to make sure that we have someone in town who we can contact for help.

We are asking everyone to consider setting up an ”Emergency Buddy”. This can be a relative, a neighbor or a friend with whom you can get in touch. This way at least two households stay connected. It does not have to be a long, involved conversation. Something along the lines of “I just wanted to make sure you are ok” can make a huge difference to someone who may be feeling anxious or isolated.

This is not just for seniors – it is for all of us. Everyone will benefit from the act of reaching out to someone else during these stressful times.

We have extraordinary technology available to us, but there are times when it is simply not accessible. A personal connection can make all the difference.

Of course, for a life-threatening emergency, 911 is your first contact. But if the situation is something that can remedied without emergency services, your “Emergency Buddy” can be an important link in keeping our community safer.

Questions?  Call Brian Tobin at 413-528-3204 briantobin@townofmtwashington.com.

The Town of Mount Washington wants to keep everyone up to date on important Town-related information. For that purpose, we regularly send out pertinent information by email.  If you are a resident or property owner and would like to be included in those emails, please contact Elisabeth Lem at elem@townofmtwashington.com.  If we have your contact information, but you have not received messages in the past, please check your spam/junk folder and label the message received thru Mailchimp as “not junk”.

The Town also maintains an emergency telephone outreach service, with 113 contacts listed.  The service is only used for emergencies and important alerts.  If you are not currently receiving these calls but would like to be added, please send an email to Brian Tobin at briantobin@townofmtwashington.com, or call him at 413-528-3204.  Each contact may include up to five telephone numbers.

N O T I C E and R E M I N D E R

TO ALL PROPERTY OWNERS AND GUESTS IN MOUNT WASHINGTON

USING OUR ROADS ON FOOT OR BICYCLE REQUIRES CAUTION. Our roads are narrow, have little or no room on the sides and frequently have low visibility around curves. Running, walking, or riding in low-light environments REQUIRES reflective clothing and/or lights. Moving rapidly from sunlight to shadow can make you difficult to see.

STAY AWARE AND STAY SAFE!