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Bangor Council Pauses Planned Dec. 19 Encampment Sweep After Safety, Health and Service Concerns
Summary
After staff reported the encampment population fell from roughly 40–47 to about 20, and public-safety and health leaders warned of access and transmission risks, Bangor City Council agreed to pause the Dec. 19 closure, seek railroad confirmation and reconvene Monday for a site assessment and next steps.
Bangor City Council on Thursday moved to pause a planned Dec. 19 closure of an encampment along the railroad after hearing public-health, police and fire officials say the site presents safety and service-delivery challenges while staff reported the overnight population had dropped to about 20 people.
City Manager (S2) told the council that counts had fallen from the mid-40s in recent weeks to roughly 20 people staying overnight and that outreach teams were seeing more individuals use warming centers. "The gravity of that sort of safety issue and crisis situation has improved substantially over the course of the last 2 weeks," S2 said during the workshop, but he urged continued work on strategies to move residents into housing.
Jen Gunnerman, director of Bangor Public Health and Community Services, described a by-name list maintained by PATH, the HOME team, BCAT and City Outreach and said outreach teams engage the site regularly. "Of the 20 people that…
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