Coronavirus: Island Towns Ask For Voluntary Town Order Compliance

MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MA — The island towns of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are asking businesses and residents to voluntarily comply with the towns' ban on non-essential construction and landscaping during the coronavirus pandemic. The towns included construction and landscaping as part of their "stay-at-home" orders issued or provisionally issued on Wednesday, then sent a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker's office on Thursday asking the state to waive the exemption for those services in the state "stay-at-home" order, which the island towns said some have argued supersedes the local ordinances.

"The towns on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are working with the Governor's office to resolve the issues of the construction ban," a Tisbury letter to the community stated. "Until that time, we strongly urge that everyone voluntarily comply with our order. The goal of this order is to keep the risk of infection on the island as low as possible to avoid a surge in COVID-19 cases that the hospital simply does not have the capacity to handle."

The island towns argue that the insular nature of island populations, out-of-town summer population, limited medical services and limited access to mutual aid all make them uniquely susceptible to a rapid community spread of the new coronavirus.

The towns' orders made exceptions for essential services such as grocery stores, pharmacies and travel to take care of others and their pets, but prohibited construction and landscaping. The island towns towns said that construction companies have contacted the town of Nantucket seeking to restart their projects in light of the governor's exemption.

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