Good morning, Hopkinton!

Welcome to the new Hopkinton Independent website. We pushed up its debut because we felt it was important to be able to disseminate information during this challenging time. Hopefully you will enjoy the site and find it useful as well as entertaining.

This post — Hopkinton Today — is an update that we plan to have each weekday morning. It will be a quick recap of anything important that happened the previous day along with a look at what events are on tap.

The big news from Tuesday was Hopkinton Police Chief Edward Lee submitting his resignation after six years on the force. Get the details here.

There isn’t much else happening in town this week due to the COVID-19 restrictions. The town’s COVID-19 website page can be found here. Milford Regional Medical Center has established a COVID-19 information hotline staffed by a healthcare professional from 8 a.m.-8 p.m.: 508-717-3702. Alternatively, you can submit an online assessment form via the MRMC website.

Anyone looking to help can donate food or money to the Project Just Because food bank, donate to the Hopkinton Food Service Department so it can provide meals to students in need (send checks to Michelle Babin, Hopkinton Middle School, 88 Hayden Rowe St., Hopkinton, MA 01748) or simply check in on elderly neighbors to see if they need any assistance.

Restaurants are banned from having diners eat in, but most establishments in town continue to offer takeout (many with curbside pickup to minimize contact). We’ve assembled a chart of all Hopkinton restaurants’ availability, and you can find that here.

If you aren’t sure how safe it is to order out, here’s an article from the website SeriousEats.com that addresses that topic. Spoiler alert: Yes, health experts say it’s OK, although there are guidelines you should follow to make it more safe.

Of course, the two biggest things you can do right now are minimize contact with others and wash your hands. By now you’ve probably seen Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” parody encouraging such behavior. If not, here it is.

That said, it would be a disservice to Neil Diamond to post that and not include something from when he was in his prime. Here’s his first No. 1 hit, 1970’s Cracklin’ Rosie. Enjoy.