On behalf of the Town Board I want to thank everyone for doing their part to stay at home, practice social distancing when out and following the CDC guidelines during this extraordinary health crisis. Warwick, you should be proud of these efforts as well as those aimed at helping our seniors obtain needed food and medicines, supporting our local businesses and their workers – all while caring for your own families.
Thank you to our health care workers especially the staff of St. Anthony Community Hospital, our police, fire and EMS for remaining on the job to keep us safe, our area schools for continuing to prepare our students to work from home and all the volunteers who have stepped up, especially the creators of the “Adopt A Warwick Senior” program, our food pantries and local businesses who are helping our neighbors in need.
We are still in the two-week period of the initial response, and positive cases of COVID-19 continue to increase across Orange County. This period of restricted activities will continue until such time as the new cases begin to drop and we are confident our health system will not be overwhelmed. We also need to be confident that our most vulnerable populations are protected.
The three Village mayors and I coordinate daily amongst ourselves as well as with Orange County emergency management to ensure we get the most up to date information which we all share with you, our residents, on our websites and social media platforms. The Town offices, while closed to one on one contact, are still staffed with essential personnel who monitor phones and emails so that we can deliver necessary services to you.
The lobby remains open for you to drop off or pick up items related to a needed Town service. Please visit www.townofwarwick.org for any form or application, Town department contact information, important notices and up to date links to other services. As always Warwick residents are pulling together to defeat this virus and get our Town back to normal as quickly as possible.
While our Dial-A-Bus system has stopped routine runs their office is still taking calls and providing critical need rides to our senior citizens. Please call 986-2877, and our staff will return your call in an effort to accommodate your need.
Adopt A Town of Warwick Senior is an incredible effort that has grown to over 250 volunteers willing to connect with a senior who needs grocery shopping or medication delivery. Organized by three Warwick residents who are veteran medical professionals of the Honor Flight Program this effort has brought calm, compassion and care to some of our most vulnerable citizens, our senior citizens. If you have not been contacted or wish to get help from the group please call my office at Town Hall at 986-1120, ext. 240, and we will put you in touch. You can also visit them on Facebook/Adopt A Town of Warwick Senior.
The next regular meeting of the Town Board, as per Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 202.1, will be closed to the public but can be viewed live via the Zoom app on Thurs., Apr. 9 at 7:30 p.m. A link to the meeting will be placed in our official newspaper, the Warwick Valley Dispatch, and on www.townofwarwick.org. All future meetings will be conducted in this manner until the Governor’s order is lifted.
The above column, written by Warwick Town Supervisor Michael Sweeton, has been published in the Apr. 1 issue of the Warwick Valley Dispatch.
