Photo / Ezra Schreiber-MacQuaid
Signs and mask “mailboxes,” offering free masks, have been installed throughout Bar Harbor’s downtown and elsewhere on Mount Desert Island.
September 4, 2020
Bar Harbor chamber: Lifting Mass. restrictions would give businesses ‘fighting chance’
Photo / Ezra Schreiber-MacQuaid
Bar Harbor businesses, such as this restaurant on West Street, “have shown the ability to safely host and serve customers over the past three months,” says Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Alf Anderson.
The Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce has asked Gov. Janet Mills to lift travel restrictions on Massachusetts residents seeking to visit Maine.
The chamber has now asked the Bar Harbor Town Council to submit the same request to Mills in a show of support for the business community.
“As these businesses attempt to generate enough sales revenue to sustain them through the coming off-season and allow them to reopen in 2021, we are simply asking that they be offered a fighting chance to succeed,” the chamber’s executive director, Alf Anderson, wrote in the chamber’s request to the council.
As of Aug. 25, the letter noted, Massachusetts’ positivity rate is comparable to where Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont were in early July, when the governor allowed residents from those states to visit without a testing or quarantine requirement.
The Mills administration imposed a 14-day quarantine requirement or negative COVID-19 testing alternative for most states, but has exempted visitors from New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey because those states have demonstrated a similar or lower positivity rate and prevalence for the COVID-19 virus.
Massachusetts is normally the leading source of out-of-state visitors to Bar Harbor, Anderson noted.
“Our local businesses have shown the ability to safely host and serve customers over the past three months and we are confident that they will do so going forward,” he wrote.
But at its Sept. 1 virtual meeting, the council declined the chamber’s request.
“I do think when the Maine CDC thinks it’s time to exempt Massachusetts, they will exempt Massachusetts,” said Councilor Matthew Hochman. “I understand that Massachusetts brings a lot of business to town. I understand that this is going to be a very quiet September and October.”
Councilor Jill Goldthwait said that, anecdotally, she noticed on a recent drive back from Massachusetts that many other cars driving into Maine had Massachusetts license plates.
The restriction “does not to seem to be a deterrent to people in Massachusetts to be coming here now,” she said.
Limited data from the town’s parking meter system shows that Massachusetts drivers were top users in August 2019, followed by Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Pennsylvania, said Town Manager Cornell Knight.
This year, the top user in August was New Jersey, followed by New York, Maine, Massachusetts and then Connecticut.
Anderson told the council the perception among business owners is that Massachusetts visitors are not in Bar Harbor in usual numbers because of the restrictions.
“We see it every day on our social media,” he said. “They’re frustrated that they have these restrictions that other states don’t.”
Much of Maine’s success in keeping the infection rate low, he said, is attributable to the measures practiced by the tourism and hospitality industry.
“People have taken it seriously,” he said of business owners.
He added, “Every customer we can welcome in the next six to eight weeks will be crucial for the success of the businesses that are trying to through the rest of this year so they can come back next spring to open doors in, hopefully, more normal times.”
Councilor Joe Minutolo suggested that businesses might benefit this fall from a new customer base in the form of summer residents, who typically depart Mount Desert Island for their year-round homes when fall rolls around. Minutolo, who co-owns a bike shop in Bar Harbor, said he’s heard from many of his summer-resident customers that they instead plan to stay in town this year.
“I think the chamber would do well to reach out to this clientele,” he said. “They’re here. They go out often. They spend money. Most of our Northeast Harbor clientele will be here through Christmas. They’ve told us they don’t want to go back until this thing gets under control.
"I’d recommend to our businesses and our chambers of commerce reach out to them, because I think this is not a market we’re used to seeing at all.”
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Anonymous
September 22, 2020
I am from Mass and have 23 storefront customers in Maine From Portland to Calais that I have not been able to visit since March. I usually spend 30-40 nights in hotels, supporting restaurants and my customers per year. It is incredibly frustrating!!! I need to get to work!!!!
Anonymous
September 9, 2020
Does Mills have a grudge against Massachusetts? It's like she has an ex from there that she hates. This seems like an irrational phobia of Massholes, given the state has been testing under 1% positive recently.
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