A box of 1,000 Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) masks slated for the town of Aquinnah was found on the side of Barnes Road Sunday, and has been turned over to the Edgartown Police by good Samaritans.
Edgartown resident Woody Wilson said he was driving along Barnes Road with his wife Phylis en route to conservation land off Plantingfield Way for a walk when he spied a box on the side of the road.
Williams said the box was about a quarter-mile from the stop sign at the intersection of Edgartown–West Tisbury Road. He turned around and collected the box. Upon opening it with a knife, he found it was full of packaged masks.
After he and his wife took their walk, he said they called Edgartown Police and made arrangements to hand over the box.
Edgartown Police Chief Bruce McNamee confirmed Monday morning the box was at his department. He said they were understood to be PPE for Aquinnah.
Asked about the masks, Aquinnah town administrator Jeff Madison said he was unaware of them.
Aquinnah Fire Chief Simon Bollin confirmed the masks had been lost. Chief Bollin said he was at Manuel Correllus State Forest Headquarters collecting a state donation of 12,000 masks on Sunday, and a box appeared to have fallen off his pickup truck sometime after he departed. He said there were more than 20 boxes of masks, which was why it wasn’t immediately evident to him that one was missing.
Aquinnah emergency manager Gary Robinson said the boxes are light, and it appeared to have blown off Bollin’s truck. Robinson said he expects to collect the box from Edgartown Police on Tuesday.
