Elaine Morgan, owner of Ashaway Dry Cleaning, talks about the state of the economy in the area.

The Providence Journal Steve Szydlowski

HOPKINTON — Town Councilwoman Barbara Capalbo has done some warm thinking about the cold winter ahead.

First she made some calls. Then she asked for a spot on Monday night’s Town Council agenda.

She wrote a speech, printed it out and brought it to the meeting. This is what she said:

“Please pay close attention to your neighbors.”

Widows, the elderly, single parents and the newly unemployed “fall through the cracks because they have never been poor enough for vouchers or without work before.”

Citing “all the unemployment that we’re seeing all the way around us,” she said she wanted “to find avenues of giving specifically for local residents by local residents.”

She knows there are agencies set up to help.

“Although we all give to numerous organizations to help persons throughout our state, nation and the world, sometimes God gives us a person right in front of our face.”

She urged neighbors to check on neighbors.

“We are all New Englanders with a great deal of pride — reasonably — and we are not used to asking for assistance.” Only about six people were at the meeting, but she knew it was being taped and could be seen on the town Web site, www.hopkintonri.org.

“Help your neighbor,” she said. And then she directed some advice to neighbors who might need help and not want to admit it:

“It is easier to accept help than get pneumonia.”

The town is adding a page to its Web site in the coming weeks, she said, that will list oil, gas and firewood providers who have agreed to accept payment from one party and deliver to another party, either anonymously or as a gift.

“Pride is more expensive than food, clothing or shelter,” she said, paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson. (What Jefferson actually said was, “Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.”)

If it bothers you to accept a load of fuel to keep the children warm this winter, she said, “You can always give it back” when you’re working again.

She quoted the Bible: “Pride goeth before the fall.”

Yesterday, Deputy Town Clerk Lorraine Tarket-Arruda said even though Hopkinton still has only about 8,000 people, it has changed a great deal since she was a girl and rode her horse across farms that are now housing developments.

She said she and others at Town Hall set up plastic tubs at Town Hall and Crandall House, a community center, to collect food after hearing what Hopkinton’s Director of Public Welfare Marjorie Rekowski did.

Rekowski said she got a call late one Friday from a family that had just fed their children some cereal, the last food in the house.

“My husband and I just started going through our cupboards and our freezer,” she said. “We brought out stuff they could cook in a hurry, like a small ham and macaroni and cheese.”

Since then, Rekowski said, her husband has built shelves in their house for emergency food supplies collected in the tubs.

In line with Councilwoman Capalbo’s plea to look out for one’s neighbors, Rekowski suggested that a friend or relative might like “$50 for the oil tank …”

More neighborly ideas came from Joan Beauchemin, executive director of the Richmond Senior Citizens Association, which has about 40 members from Hopkinton.

“Many times, seniors feel the pinch of the strained economy,” Beauchemin said yesterday. “Keep an eye on them.”

Simply “ringing a doorbell” to check on a neighbor is easy, she said, as is calling once a day to make sure an elderly neighbor is well.

People who lack transportation might appreciate a ride to the store or a medical appointment, or help with household chores.

Citing statistics from the state Department of Labor and Training, Town Manager William A. DiLibero said Hopkinton’s unemployment rate had doubled from October 2007, when it was 4.0 percent, to 8.1. The state unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, was 5.1 in October 2007 and 9.3 percent this October.

The statistics, based on a statewide monthly household survey, show 4,676 Hopkinton residents working and 196 seeking jobs a year ago, and 4,421 working and 388 seeking jobs in 2008. The Hopkinton figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Factory closings in the past year have taken their toll. In the Hopkinton village of Alton, Charbert has closed. In Westerly, Blue Skies closed and Bradford Dyeing Association announced in September that it would close if a dispute with the agency responsible for military purchasing could not be resolved.

But there is some good news. DiLibero said the town has seen 300,000 square feet of light manufacturing open recently, near Route 95’s Exit 1. One company moved from the East Bay area and one expanded from Connecticut, he said, bringing workers with them.

Capalbo said squirrels have extra thick coats this winter, a sign of the coming cold. People can close off rooms and can draft-proof doors and windows, but, “You can only put on so many clothes and the pipes still freeze.”

Her message: If you need help, you need help. If you can give help, give help.

dnaylor@projo.com