Wow, we are halfway through May. Here is the update for the week.
Good Stuff
- A Dikes Landing neighbor on Dummer Street has sent a thank you for the huge improvement in noise. She is very grateful.
- Please contact Kristen at 295-3317 to share acts of kindness and other Good Stuff that you are seeing!
Contact Information
- Please call the office right away if we do not have up-to-date contact information for you, including your current phone number. We continue to be unable to reach some residents and really need to have your current information.
Food
- We expect the next Food Bank delivery on Tuesday, May 26.
- If you are interested in prepared meals, remember that Meals on Wheels can be reached at 1-800-639-1553.
- See the attached Maine Equal Justice flyer for important information on SNAP benefits.
Gardens
- MOFGA volunteers will be coming on Saturday, June 6 from 11am-12noon but Garden Day will be very different this year:
- In an effort to keep everyone safe, MOFGA volunteers have requested that they have NO contact with residents during planting.
- At Anchorage, Dikes Landing and Moorings, the volunteers will plant a general assortment of vegetables in each garden and will label what they plant. Requests are not possible. If you do not want them to plant in your garden, please leave something in your garden that says this.
- At Seacliff, the volunteers will leave the plants that were originally requested on top of your garden for you to plant yourself. Because the Seacliff Community Room was open longer to allow for construction of the wall, it was possible to access the Seacliff plant requests.
- We have garden stakes ordered so that we can label resident gardens and the MOFGA gardens. As with many deliveries right now, shipping has been delayed and we will add the stakes as soon as we can. The volunteers have copies of the garden maps with resident names as well.
- Updated garden maps are attached and reflect the final adjustments and additions. As a reminder, all initial matches were based on Garden Request Forms. Based on Moorings requests this year, it is possible for each resident using a low garden bed to have the full garden bed this year.
- There has been a delay in Labbe & Son’s work on the Anchorage garden fencing. We now expect this work to be begin in early June and will keep you posted.
Internet
- Comcast has extended their COVID-19-related offer of free Internet for 2 months for new Internet Essentials customers to June 30. Beyond this period, the program costs $9.95/month and also has options for lower cost computer purchases. For more information, you can call 1-855-846-8376 or visit internetessentials.com.
Memorial Day
- Bath Housing will be closed on Friday, May 22 from 1 pm – 4 pm and also on Monday, May 25 in observance of Memorial Day. As always, call the office if you need to reach the On-Call Maintenance staff for an urgent Work Order.
Visitors
- If you have people visiting to provide you with essential care or services (NO other visitors are permitted during this time), please be sure that your visitors are washing their hands regularly, wearing masks and keeping a distance of at least 6 feet from anyone.
Wellness
- Free virtual Tai Chi for Health and Balance and Better Health Now programs are now available to you at home through Healthy Living for ME! Virtual Tai Chi is a 16-session class to help quiet the mind with slow methodical movements that have been proven to improve balance and lessen the pain associated with arthritis. Better Health Now is a 6-week program that includes weekly support calls with a certified facilitator. Participants learn techniques for action planning, problem solving, decision making and more. If you are interested in either program, visit healthylivingforme.org or call 1-800-620-6036.
Maintenance
- Maintenance staff are available for urgent Work Orders. Please call the office right away about anything that could harm you or the apartment—things like trouble with a smoke detector, a clogged toilet, power outage, a leak, a broken window, etc.
- If you have a non-urgent Work Order that you have been waiting on, please call the office so that we can be working on a plan to take care of these needs when precautions are eased
- In June, Maintenance staff will begin to address safety-related Reasonable Accommodation requests (such as requests for grab bars or tub changes), lighting needs and Air Conditioner installs.
- Now that the Bath Landfill is back open, Maintenance staff will remove the mattresses behind Moorings this week.
Pet Supplies
- For those of you participating in Dogwill deliveries, Carolyn provided her card in the most recent deliveries. If you need to make any changes to your pet supplies, it is easiest for her if you contact her directly. If you would like to be added to or removed from Dogwill deliveries, please contact Kristen.
Staff
- It feels like forever since many of us have seen you! Maintenance staff is working primarily on urgent Work Orders, preparing empty units and grounds work. And admin staff is only allowed a very specific window of time in the office each week, so many of us rarely see you out and about. We really miss seeing you. More importantly, we want to keep you safe! Our team would love to be back in the buildings, but going in and out of multiple buildings and apartments increases the risk to residents. Like many people during this time, our staff members have also been figuring out how to juggle kids who are no longer in school or day care and elderly family members in need of regular deliveries and support. The only staffing change has been Paul’s return for the summer months, which is why the lawns are in such great shape already. This also means that we have been coordinating all COVID-19-related work in addition to our usual roles, all while working from both our homes and the office. We appreciate your patience and flexibility as we work to maintain both safe and stable housing and add lots of resources to help make it possible for you to protect yourselves during COVID-19 precautions. Thank you, too, for keeping us posted on what you need and what is not working well—all of that helps.
Supplies
- Midcoast Maine Community Action (MMCA) will generously be providing a supply of non-food items—things like shampoo, toilet paper and toothpaste. We are expecting the delivery late this week and will plan to get the items out with next week’s delivery so that you can help yourself to what you need.