Over the last several weeks, the hospital task force has transformed an angry crowd into a hard-working machine. They’ve raised funds, formed work groups, hired a lawyer and dug into the serious work of overturning a decision they had no part in making and are unwilling to accept.

Volunteer Coordinator Peggy Powis noted the transformation in her work group report at the task force’s October 2 meeting. “The storming is over. We’re now no longer just wanting to vent our anger. We’re in that space where we are stopping being angry and we are beginning to form,” Powis said.

For most of the meeting, the room full of volunteers validated Powis’s remarks. But in a few short moments, when the meeting was all but done, several people present were lured back into the emotionalism that dominated the first public meetings.

After a heated exchange between audience members and Lincoln County Healthcare Vice President of Physician Services, Stacey Miller, Chuck Cunningham abruptly adjourned the meeting.

Miller, a Boothbay Harbor native who has been the healthcare organization’s sole representative at these meetings for several weeks, was firm and clear in her replies but also visibly upset by the turn in the proceedings. For their part, audience members who spoke were clear that they were not satisfied with the answers provided to date and continued to focus on the hospital’s Board of Trustees.

After the meeting, Boothbay Town Manager Jim Chaousis apologized for his own “disrespectful” behavior toward Miller in an email sent to Miller and the task force.

The task force has raised just under $20,000 in support of its efforts to stave off the closure of St. Andrews Hospital. Upcoming plans include a healthcare needs survey, a public opinion survey and a petition (likely to appear at polling locations in November). Work on an alternative hospital proposal, legal remedies, ambulance service needs, economic and data analyses, mental health needs and fundraising continues.

The task force meets every Tuesday at the Boothbay Town Office at 7 p.m.