Editor’s note: This story by Jared Pendak was first published by the Valley News on Sept. 26.
[C]helsea — The village is starting to get back some of its core institutions.
Residents in the town of 1,430 have been lamenting the loss of a pharmacy two years ago that operated in the Chelsea Health Center, as well as a gas station on Route 110 that doubled as a pizza shop.
Both facilities recently have reopened: The gas station opened in the spring as part of a convenience store and deli, while The Medicine Shoppe, a Barre, Vt.-based pharmaceutical franchise, opened a pharmacy two weeks ago in the health center space formerly occupied by Kinney Drugs.
While some Chelsea residents have been getting prescriptions through home delivery services, others have been traveling to Bradford, Barre or Randolph to get them filled. That presented a particular hardship for seniors who rely on others for rides, and it was exacerbated during the winter months.
“The main problem was transportation,” said Rita Edwards, 91, who has lived in town since 1952 — one year before the Health Center opened. “You’d call in a prescription, and then have to go 20-25 miles one way to get it. There’s no public transportation here, and seniors had a hard time getting to these places.”
Adopting a model first implemented by the former Kinney pharmacy, which closed in 2016, the new Medicine Shoppe is what state Rep. Bob Frenier, R-Chelsea, a trustee of the Chelsea Health Center, describes as a “remote” location. It’s staffed with a full-time pharmaceutical technician who consults via video teleconference with a managing pharmacist in Barre. Customers also may speak to a more experienced pharmacist via a web-connected tablet and telephone installed at the pickup window.
“I’ve had two people consult with me so far, and it’s worked out well,” Sonia Parton, the Barre-based supervisor, said in a teleconference interview on Tuesday at the Chelsea store. “It’s fairly simple for people to use and it addresses a need in Chelsea.”
Most Chelsea customers have needed only to consult with pharmacy technician Jason Stone, of Grantham, who mans the store 49 hours per week. The remote system meant The Medicine Shoppe didn’t have to recruit and train a full-fledged pharmacist, who require a doctorate and typically earn about $150,000 per year, according to Frenier.
“What we have here is basically a 400-square-foot kiosk to get medication, and it works,” Frenier said. “We hope these remote drug stores can be a model for every other small town in the same predicament. It’s important for Chelsea, and it’s also important for a lot of small towns.”
Directly across the hallway from the pharmacy sit the Health Center offices. It’s a primary care facility that is part of the Gifford Health Care network. Physicians such as Laura Barber said having a pharmacy under the same roof is an invaluable asset.
“Before this reopened, if a patient came in with health concerns and needed to be treated with medication right away, it was not a good thing,” Barber said. “The transportation to get prescriptions filled was a burden for a lot of patients.”
Frenier also lauded the continued success of First Branch Ambulance’s house calls program, where crew members make regular visits to enrolled residents in order to perform wellness checks and administer first aid, blood pressure monitoring and other preventative services as needed. The program, which began several years ago, can provide up to 15 home visits per day.
“The goal is to keep people out of the hospital and in their homes, which saves a boatload of money,” Frenier said.
Home visits also are valuable socially for some of those enrolled, according to First Branch Administrator Linda Kuban. “Just to have us stop in, say ‘Hello’ and make sure everything is going well is good for a lot of the people we serve,” Kuban said. “A lot of people who live alone get lonely.”
Those who drive in and around Chelsea also were relieved in the spring about the reopening of the gas pumps, now part of the Route 110 Quik Stop convenience store and deli. Aside from Chelsea, the nearest gas stations are located in South Royalton, Vershire and Washington, Vt.
Quik Stop is co-owned by Tim Ward, who also owns the Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill.
Ward’s parents run Ward’s Garage, an auto repair and gas station on Route 113 in Vershire.
Scott Irish, an East Barre resident who had been visiting his cousin in Chelsea, said he was glad to have access to the pumps.
“I’ve had to use a gas can at his house before because there were no stores around,” Irish said. “It’s frustrating when there aren’t places that sell gas.”
The pumps were a godsend on Tuesday for Cleopatra Griffin, of Montpelier, who works at SafeArt, an art therapy organization in Chelsea.
“I’m definitely glad they’re here, because I was on ‘empty’ and wouldn’t have had enough gas to get to Washington from here,” Griffin said.
Access to groceries is another ongoing issue in Chelsea, of particular concern since the closing of the Chelsea Country Store in 2014. Two nearby retail stores that carried groceries, Flanders Market and the North Tunbridge General Store, shuttered in 2017.
The closest supermarkets, Shaw’s in Randolph and Hannaford locations in South Barre and Bradford, Vt., all are 25 to 35 minutes away.
Will’s Store, which began selling more grocery items after the country store closed, maintains a limited selection.
According to Frenier, a grassroots group in Chelsea has begun exploring options to get more groceries to town, perhaps by soliciting a supermarket chain to transport fresh groceries for pickup at Will’s Store or another location.
And about 60 people concerned about the loss of core stores and services in Chelsea had met back in January at a potluck supper to brainstorm about such ideas.
“Gas is nice, but we’ve got to get groceries here,” Frenier said. “Hannaford has something called Hannaford to Go, where you order online and pick up at one of their stores. Just like the remote pharmacy, we need to see what kind of technology we can incorporate for groceries. If we don’t embrace the technology, we’re going to remain isolated.”
