Cape and Islands delegation gives seasonal community guidance

After Oak Bluffs leaders balked at the open letter to seasonal residents crafted by the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, with input from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, the question still remains: What is the plan or message for seasonal residents headed to the Island?

While Oak Bluffs officials criticized the letter posted by the chamber, they haven’t yet to offer an alternative to seasonal residents seeking guidance.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s stay-at-home advisory is in effect until May 18 and a state advisory group is working on guidelines for reopening the economy, thousands of seasonal residents are preparing to head to the Island with Memorial Day Weekend only three weeks away.

On Friday, the Cape and Islands legislative delegation stepped in and released guidance of their own for the seasonal community.

The list compiles familiar guidelines — some of which were in the chamber’s open letter, but instead of having people follow them through the summer, the Cape and Islands delegation guidelines only run through May 18 when Baker’s stay-at-home advisory is set to end. 

Per the guidelines, people are asked to postpone all non-essential travel and people who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 are instructed not to travel to the Cape and Islands.

If people still intend to come to the Cape and Islands they are asked to bring all necessary supplies including prescriptions, cleaning supplies, personal health items, and personal protective equipment to enable a 14-day quarantine.

“However, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket remain highly vulnerable to a major surge in new cases due to the highly contagious and insidious nature of this disease and the seasonal nature of our communities that creates an influx in population in the warmer months,” the guidelines read.

The guidelines have also been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Bourne, state Reps. William Crocker, R-Centerville; Dylan Fernandes, D-Woods Hole; Randy Hunt, R-Sandwich; Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown; David Vieira, R-East Falmouth; and Timothy Whelan, R-Brewster. They are also supported by the Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Cottage hospitals and the Cape Cod and Nantucket Island chambers of commerce.

In an email to Island town leaders Tuesday, state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, asked for towns to sign on to the set of guidelines.

“The goal is to have uniform information for seasonal residents coming from all entities of authority in the region; the aim is to speak with one consistent message,” Cyr wrote.

In a follow up email later that evening, Cyr said the open letter put out by the chamber was not the same as the guidance he wanted towns to sign on to and was not released or prepared in consultation with him, his office, or any member of the Cape and Island legislation.

“The swift reaction to these go-it-alone statements reiterates my strong recommendation that we need to act in coordination as a region with a uniform message. Anything less puts the health and economic viability of our communities at risk,” Cyr wrote.

Echoing the negative reactions of other Oak Bluffs business leaders, Dukes County Commissioner Christine Todd, who is also executive director of the Oak Bluffs Business Association, leveled criticism during a county commission meeting Wednesday at the open letter that asked seasonal residents to take strict precautions this summer against the novel coronavirus. To different degrees, both the hospital and the chamber changed course on their stated positions about the letter following Oak Bluffs outcries.

Todd characterized the letter as premature, unwelcoming, and unwarranted.

“To send a letter out now that is telling people who are coming here two or three months from now that they have to stay in their home for two weeks,” she said, “that they have to have to have personal protective equipment and they have to plan to be doing just takeout from restaurants and maintaining six feet distance — all those things may very well still be in place, may be loosen up, or maybe even stricter. I just think that it’s premature to be sending a message out that is in my opinion instilling a bit of angst to individuals who are planning to come out here. And I think we need to be more positive and welcoming in our messaging…”

Todd struggled with the concept of participating as a county in a regional followup open letter that would be co-edited by the commission, Barnstable County, and Dukes County.

Amidst deliberation on the idea, Israel said he found it problematic health matters were getting sidelined in favor of other aspects of the follow up letter’s content.

“I’m just not hearing people talk about that end of it, which I find a little dismaying,” he said.

“Tristan, my thinking on that is the hospital has been talking about the health end of this for six weeks now or more,” Todd said. “And as we’ve been dealing with the health piece of this, which I think everyone is aware of every day—how many people are in the hospital, how many people have been sent home, how many people have died nation-wide, state-wide, county-wide and town-wide. We’ve been inundated with health information on this—social distancing, how is it contracted? There’s still so many ifs, ands, or buts up in the air. What we have not been really able to deal with and get our arms around is how do we begin to get back into some sort of a productive mode of living.”

The commission went on to vote unanimously to partake in the followup letter.

Aquinnah town leaders expressed concern Wednesday about the influx of residents and visitors alike, but felt it was too early to make formal decisions regarding advisories to visitors.

While selectmen agreed it was a wrong move to issue the open letter without consulting the town’s first, they also agreed there needed to be guidance for the wave of people that would come.

“I hope we are not reinventing the wheel here,” Town administrator Jeff Madison said. “We are all well-acquainted with the effort put into emergency orders adopted by each of the towns.”

Madison said the Island towns needed to have a unified voice to let off-Island travelers know about any regulations that will be implemented. He added that the Island was in for a “world of hurt” if they were too lenient on summer visitors. 

“If we open this thing up, all hell will break loose,” Madison said. “The hospital has no ability to handle a population of 100,000 or more people coming here. We will get lost in an instant if we do away with the stay at home orders and the social distancing.”

In Edgartown selectman chairman Margaret Serpa said the board is focused on finding a site for its annual town meeting and hasn’t discussed guidelines for seasonal residents.

“We haven’t totally discussed a lot of that yet,” Serpa said. “I think we will coming up.”

Jeffrey “Skipper” Manter, a West Tisbury selectmen, told The Times the board had not had any discussions about the open letter and said guidance for seasonal residents would come from the board of health.

After the fallout from the chamber and hospital open letter, hospital CEO Denise Schepici apologized for leaving the towns out, but didn’t apologize for the overall message.

“What happened yesterday with the Chamber’s letter is completely understandable – the intent was to offer guidance under the governor’s current executive order which suggests any travelers to Martha’s Vineyard need to self-quarantine for 14 days. That is the governor’s order until May 18th. We do not know what the governor will propose after that, but one thing we can bet on — it will not be business as usual on May 19th.”