{"id":6300,"date":"2020-05-15T09:51:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T13:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=6300"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T15:04:25","slug":"what-being-essential-really-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2020\/05\/15\/what-being-essential-really-means\/","title":{"rendered":"What \u2018Being Essential\u2019 Really Means"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since its first diagnosis in Wuhan, China, in December of 2019, COVID-19 has spread across the globe. Many states in the U.S. are now taking steps to slow the spread of the virus. One such step has been closing any non-essential businesses. Maine Governor Janet Mills issued one such executive order on March 25, 2020, saying that non-essential businesses must close for a minimum of 14 days.<\/p>\n

But what does that mean for the essential businesses? Mark Draper, executive director of Aroostook Waste Solutions, runs one such business. \u201cWithout the landfills open, public waste would have nowhere to go,\u201d Draper said. He runs both the Tri-Community Landfill in Fort Fairfield and the Presque Isle Landfill. The next closest landfill is in Houlton, an hour south.<\/p>\n

One of Draper\u2019s worries is what would happen if his employees get sick. \u201cWe have 10 employees total between Presque Isle and Fort Fairfield. If we even lose two, we would have a hard time staying open,\u201d Draper said. Draper went on to explain that before there were any state-required precautions, he had already implemented some changes to protect his staff. \u201cThe public remains in their cars when interacting with staff, and no one goes into our offices or scale houses,\u201d Draper said. \u201cWe are also only allowing those with pre-paid permits to use the facilities. No new permits means no contact with money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other problem Draper has had to face was determining the appropriate response if one of his employees did get the virus. \u201cIf one employee calls in sick with COVID-19 symptoms, does that mean the person he worked with the day before needs to go home? I don\u2019t know,\u201d Draper said. He explained that while most of his employees are healthy, there are a few in the \u2018at-risk\u2019 age bracket. \u201cI just hope nothing happens. But then again, hope is not a strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another essential business is A.R. Gould Memorial Hospital. Within the past several weeks, numerous changes have been made to departments across the facility. All non-emergent appointments have been canceled or rescheduled. Some departments have closed altogether. Visitation has been limited to only one pre-determined visitor per patient.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The Main Entrance of Northern Light A.R. Gould Memorial Hospital, one of only two entrances open to the public due to COVID-19 restrictions.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sherry Beaulieu is the manager of many different departments and services. One of them is the Spiritual Care Department. \u201cOur chaplains used to do daily rounds with the patients and had meetings with family members. Now, they stay home and are on call for emergent needs,\u201d Beaulieu said. \u201cThey call in daily to see if there are any special requests from patients or even the staff. We sometimes have more requests from staff members than patients. But now, we can\u2019t provide the same level of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beaulieu explained that there are ideas she and her supervisors are working on to see if they can provide some type of support. \u201cWe are considering getting a computer and speaker system set up so that patients can have Zoom meetings with the chaplains. We are also planning on doing daily phone calls to the patient rooms if we can\u2019t get that to work,\u201d Beaulieu said. \u201cAs for the staff, the house chapel is large enough to have one-on-one appointments and still maintain appropriate distancing. That\u2019s something we\u2019re looking into, too,\u201d Beaulieu said.<\/p>\n

One thing that both Draper and Beaulieu expressed was the uncertainty of how long they are going to have to work like this. \u201cThe hospital are making changes that go to the end of May. But who knows if they\u2019ll have to extend into June?\u201d Beaulieu said. As for Draper, he said that he\u2019ll find ways to stay open. \u201cIf too many employees need to stay home for quarantine, we\u2019re prepared to close one of the landfills and have all waste brought to the other. We\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since its first diagnosis in Wuhan, China, in December of 2019, COVID-19 has spread across the globe. Many states in the U.S. are now taking steps to slow the spread of the virus. One such step has been closing any non-essential businesses. Maine Governor Janet Mills issued one such executive order on March 25, 2020, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":255,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/255"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8349,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300\/revisions\/8349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}