More than one person has contacted me over the past couple of weeks about the proposed (but nixed) delay of the summer water start and about columns which suggest that summer residents and visitors stay where they are right now instead of heading to our region and furthering the chance that our region becomes a “mini epicenter” of the coronavirus.

I get it. They want to get away from their state where the coronavirus is more rampant than it is here.

A phone call from a woman who is planning to retire here soon to her family’s longtime home was insightful about her plight. She and others in her family are doing what’s right and staying away and are living in a small space to avoid contracting the coronavirus. She wishes to come to her home here in Maine “and loves paying her taxes” for the opportunity to live here. I feel for her. She and her family are doing the correct thing by staying put.

But, on the other hand, the proposal by the towns about delaying summer water, and the suggestions that visitors quarantine themselves for 14 days, and that rental companies are asked to delay renting to visitors are aimed at the people unlike her. The Boothbay region is not alone in making these suggestions. It started weeks ago as resort areas throughout the state anticipated and saw an exodus of people leaving their winter homes and heading to less infected areas to summer homes and rental opportunities in Maine. It was a wave of concern that only proposals and directives of staying away could help save these areas from becoming infected more.

Maine is a rural state and most of its hospitals have consolidated or shut down. Locally, LincolnHealth has utilized its workers from St. Andrews Urgent Care and Family Care Center to help at Miles Memorial Hospital during this time. And should the situation get worse – by visitors spreading the coronavirus – it could get more than urgent; it could become disastrous.

We are sorry we are having to make these proposals and directives but it is for everyone’s good. As the saying going around the country says, “We are in this together.” But for now, together means staying put, staying with your family, and riding out this wave the best we know how.

Better days are ahead if we do what’s right.

And when this nightmare is over, we will welcome our visitors and summer residents with open arms. Meanwhile, be safe.