Elected leaders from Edgecomb and three other towns agreed August 22 to join forces to try to keep a hospital on the peninsula. One Edgecomb selectman and his counterparts representing Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor and Southport made the decision after hearing comments from a crowd of hundreds at Boothbay Region Elementary School.

Those comments underscored St. Andrews Hospital's longstanding role in saving local lives and bringing them into the world. Not all the towns' boards had enough members present to formally approve plans for a task force. But every one of them who was there raised his hand in favor of the idea. They agreed to have one selectman from each town meet on August 29 at the Boothbay Town Office at 7 p.m. to get plans under way.

Edgecomb's lone selectman at the August 22 meeting, Stuart Smith, successfully argued that two weeks would be too long to wait to start organizing the task force. “Time is of the essence,” Smith said.

Smith said later that he will volunteer to be Edgecomb's selectman at the August 29 meeting. He expected the Edgecomb board to easily pass a planned resolution among the towns in support of forming the task force.

Smith said he “absolutely” wants St. Andrews' emergency room to stay open. The hospital currently serves about half of Edgecomb, with Miles Memorial Hospital serving the rest of town, he said.

As for State Representative Bruce MacDonald's proposed bill to let the towns form their own hospital, Smith said the concept was “worth exploring, at the very least.”

As only a couple of hands went up when Edgecomb residents were asked to show themselves, Smith appeared to make up about one-third of the Edgecomb turnout in the crowd of hundreds.

One of those hands was Sue LaPlaca's. She formerly worked in housekeeping for Lincoln County Healthcare. “It's important that we keep a hospital on this peninsula, for economic reasons and for public safety reasons. We're really looking at a huge blow, should we not have one,” LaPlaca said before the meeting started.

“We've lost our fishing community. We need to keep our retirement community,” LaPlaca said.

Although Edgecomb residents could have other closeby options for hospitals, one of them, MidCoast Hospital in Brunswick, would be difficult to get to quickly if there are traffic tie-ups on Route 1, LaPlaca said.

Edgecomb resident Marissa Carmolli used to be a lab manager at St. Andrews. After sitting through the meeting, she said she was hopeful that the hospital will remain. Referring to those planning to change St. Andrews, Carmolli said “I think they picked a fight with the wrong people. There are a lot of strong-willed people here.”

Connie Machon, a Boothbay Harbor summer resident, and sister Sharon Barter of Boothbay Harbor grew up in Edgecomb. “We're very concerned that the emergency room is going to close,” Machon said. Barter said she most wants to know what, if any, impact the changes would have on the use of Medicare to pay for services.

Jan Stephens is spending her 53rd summer in the Boothbay area. She said the outcome of the hospital situation will probably impact how long she will spend here in the summer going forward. She also predicted the changes at St. Andrews would have a ripple effect on local businesses.

Linda Laweryson of Waldoboro was a registered nurse at St. Andrews for six years, “and I know the care was excellent,” she said. “We need to keep our little hospital here.”