GORHAM – The town is functioning well under recent precautions taken to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the Town Council chairman says.
“It’s working so far,” Chairman Suzanne Phillips said Wednesday.
All municipal buildings and school facilities in town were shut down Monday for two weeks.
“We are taking things day by day and reassessing at the end of this week to see if we have to have to continue how we are,” Phillips said.
Town Manager Ephrem Paraschak could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
In Buxton, all municipal buildings have been closed to the public until further notice, including the Share Shop. The transfer station is not accepting any personal hygiene items for recycling.
As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, continues to go up in the state, Phillips said she assumes it’s only a matter of time before Gorham hears of its first case, “because of our population size and the amount of people working in Portland and living here.”
Phillips said the fire department is checking on senior residents live alone.
“That is going well,” she said.
Gorham schools are providing bagged lunches to students and the BackPack Program continues to supply students at various distribution sites around town. The school district website, gorhamschools.org, lists pickup sites and more information on the food programs.
The schools have distributed Chrome books to fourth- and fifth graders and are supplying all students with remote learning instruction and packages.
In Buxton, where schools are also closed for two weeks, SAD 6 is offering free meals to all children under age 18 on weekdays at Buxton Center Elementary and other locations from 8:30-9:15 a.m. and 11 a.m. to noon. Meals include lunch for the day of pickup and breakfast for the following day. For more details and pick-up sites, go to the SAD 6 School Nutrition Facebook page or bonnyeagle.org.
Buxton school teachers have been distributing distance learning packages to students.
All Buxton municipal buildings have been closed to the public until further notice, including the Share Shop. The transfer station is not accepting any personal hygiene items for recycling.
The Maine Principals’ Association has pushed back high school teams’ preseason practices by a month. They are scheduled to resume April 27.
Also canceled is the 23rd annual Gorham Business Exchange’s Marketplace scheduled for this weekend on the USM campus.
Chance Viles contributed to this report.
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