SCARBOROUGH — Gov. Janet Mills announced a multi-step plan to “restart Maine’s Economy,” which the Scarborough Town Council examined and discussed on April 28.
Maine State Representatives Chris Caiazzo and Shawn Babine as well as State Senators Linda Sanborn and Rebecca Millett explained to the Town Council and public how the plan will look in each of its stages.
Mills announced the plan on April 28, which includes four stages that are meant to gradually and safely restart Maine’s economy, according to a press release. The stages focus on essential versus non-essential desginations.
Stage one, beginning in May 1, still has the current ban on gatherings of 10 people or more, explains the press release.
This stage will allow for limited business, religious, and quality-of-life activities, Millett said, reading from the release, including health care from Maine-licensed providers; personal services such as barber shops, hair salons, and pet grooming; limited drive-in, stay-in-your-vehicle religious services; drive-in movie theaters; outdoor recreation such as guided outdoor activities and restricted use of golf and disc golf courses; state parks, state-owned public land trails, and historic sites, but certain coastal state parks will remain closed; and auto dealerships and car washes
Stage two is tentatively expected to begin June 1, said the press release. It would see the openings of businesses like restaurants, nail salons, coastal state parks, and more.
Beginning July 1, if all goes well, the next stage would consider increasing the number of people who can gather to up to 50, said the release. Lodgings like hotels, outdoor recreation excursions, bars and personal services would be reopened in a limited capacity.
Sanborn clarified that the stages would all still contain a limit to how many people are able to gather in one place.
“She mentions in the first stage — you can still only have 10 people gathered and that expands in stage two and three to fewer than 50 people gathered,” she said. “All of those stages had the 14 day quarantine for people out of state, which will be really tricky to implement or to know who’s following those guidelines, but that’s important to know.”
Businesses approved for stage one will also need to go through a process to receive the all-clear to open, said Jean-Marie Caterina.
“You can’t open anything even if it’s on the list without going through a checklist,” she said. “You have to get a badge is what they were calling it in order to even open. It’s not just you automatically can open up your hair salon or whatever. You have to go through a process.”
Checklists for the stage one-approved businesses listed above were released at the end of April. To apply to open, he compliance form, found at appengine.egov.com/apps/me/covidpreventionform, must be filled out.
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