Erving Board of Health unanimously creates weekly COVID-19 task force subcommittee

ERVING -- February 17, 2021, Erving's Board of Health voted unanimously to create a weekly COVID-19 task force subcommittee at its February 17 meeting. Board Chair Jeffrey McAndrews said the panel would meet each week at 3 p.m. beginning the following week, drawing in school, senior center, and regional health representatives to coordinate messaging and monitor case trends. School representative Gail Dubriel said staff anxiety had spiked after Erving appeared in the yellow category with a 7.9 percent positivity rate, calling that figure misleading for a town of Erving's size. Regional vaccine coordinator Phil Wonka, reporting live from the Greenfield clinic, said nearly all of Erving's roughly 109 residents aged 75 and older had secured appointments but that vaccine shipments had been cut back statewide. The board also heard that a trailer park shared well sits only 52 feet from its leach field, well short of the 100-foot minimum, and that a January 22 inquiry to the state Department of Environmental Protection asking whether the site qualifies as a public water supply had gone unanswered.