By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — The lifting of Maine’s mandatory mask law and capacity restrictions has put a lot on the plate of the selectmen when it comes to outdoors seating at this town’s restaurants.

After hearing from the owners of several restaurants, the Naples Board of Selectmen decided to keep picnic tables, patios and decks in place for this summer. That’s because the public is still wary, and also a future outbreak of COVID-19 or a more contagious variant is still uncertain. 

The resolution does not allow the seating capacity to change. Whatever number of people is allowed inside the building will be split between indoors and outdoors seating.

Last year, the selectmen passed a resolution allowing restaurants to have outdoors seating to capture what space for customers had been lost indoors due to social distancing requirements. Some of these outdoors seating arrangements caused a conflict with the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance. However, since it was a temporary fix to an unexpected problem, the selectmen agreed to the allowances. 

On Monday, that resolution adopted by the selectmen in 2020 expired because of the changes in Gov. Janet Mills executive order. 

On May 14, the Mills administration announced the upcoming changes, according to the State of Maine website. As of this Monday, people who are fully vaccinated are allowed to go maskless. The state-of-emergency is still in effect. The rules requiring social distancing have ended. People who have been vaccinated no longer have to wear a mask in public places. The exception to the mask rule is that face-coverings must be worn at hospitals, medical centers, and doctors’ and dentists’ offices, the website said. 

On the very day that the no-mask ruling began, the selectmen and the owners of eating establishments in Naples discussed what to do before the tourist season goes full force. Most business-owners said the public is opting to sit outdoors and that people want to feel safe before returning to ‘normal lifestyles.’

What business owners want 

Darryl Murray, the owner of Freedom Cafe, reiterated that this was the first day of the new mask-free declaration. 

“Half of the customers that came in still wore a mask. No one wanted to sit indoors. Everyone was outside although it was cold and windy. The general population has not totally bought into everything is clear and free,” Murray said. 

“To roll back to where we were before the pandemic is pretty shortsighted,” he said.

“Today, it was chilly. There was no sun on the deck. But, people wanted to sit out there,” Murray said. “The public makes the decision. They decide where they want to sit, and how they want to eat.”

Annette Metcalf, the owner of Annette’s Country SkilletDiner in the Lakes Shopping Plaza, also spoke. 

“I’m a family restaurant. A lot of the kids don’t have the shots yet. Parents are going to take their kids outside. They don’t want to sit inside,” Metcalf said.  

She indicated that she didn’t want to expand her seating capacity. She liked having the outdoor seating, and wanted to keep the seating size small.

“I think we are still in a pandemic,” said Naples resident Sue Fleck, who owns Brother Flecker’s.

She went around town to places like Naples Variety, Tony’s Foodland and Walgreens to gauge what people were doing. She said it was an even split, “50-50,” between people still wearing masks and those not.

She recalled spring 2020 when the state government allowed restaurants to open and then shut them down and repeated that pattern. 

“This is the first time they’ve lifted the mask mandate. But, we don’t know what we are in for. Everything could be okay and that is what we are praying for. But it is not a guarantee,” she said.

She spoke in support of the continued use of outdoors seating, including seating in the Shoreland Zone. 

“These businesses depend on it being insanely busy from now until school starts. I don’t think what is being asked for is outside of the pandemic. I think what is being asked for are the things to keep their customers happy,” Fleck said. “Food is a primal need. And, people get really stressed about it. They are already cranked and we are asking them to come back inside.”

“The last thing we want to do is be a hot spot,” she said. “We have a lot of people from a lot of different places. We hope they don’t have it (COVID-19) but what if they do?”

Essentially, having the extra space outside allows the public to continue to social distance and engage in behavior that would prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

Scott Allen, of Naples Marina, talked about Captain Jack’s. 

“It is really hard to get people packed into this place. Are you okay with 150 tourists from all over the world coming in here and sitting here? We have staff that is not vaccinated. We have some that cannot get vaccinated. Personally, we have to take some time with this,” Allen said. “What happens if this rebounds? What happens if there is a relapse. We are still in a state of emergency.” 

What the selectmen think

Chairman Jim Grattelo said the issue for him was the continued existence of Captain Jack’s deck, which sits in the Shoreland Zone of Brandy Pond. People in the community, private land-owners, have complained about the deck, saying it is unfair that Captain Jacks is allowed deck and other people aren’t, he said. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has complained about the deck, he said. The DEP went ballistic and was upset with the town of allowing this, he said. 

Jimmy Allen, the owner of Captain Jack’s, said that his letter from the DEP indicated it was up to the town’s selectmen whether the deck stayed up — under the special circumstances of allowing customers to maintain distance between one another during the pandemic. 

“When are you going to take the deck down? If I am going to agree to this, there has to be a date when that deck comes down,” Grattelo said. 

Allen answered, “Oct. 15.” 

Grattelo said, “You are stating that to the TV.”

Allen turned to face the camera of Lake Region Television and repeated, “Oct. 15.”

The audience applauded.

While Grattelo had the mindset that each business must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, Selectman Jim Turpin had a differing viewpoint. 

In fact, Turpin was the opposing vote to renew the COVID-19 resolution for restaurant owners. At the end of the meeting, Turpin shared why he voted against the resolution. 

“Before getting on this board, I watched the selectboard meeting trying to figure out on how this town was run,” Turpin said. 

“People with loud voices got what they wanted,” and weren’t held to the same rules while other people with less influence were punished for violating Shoreland Zoning laws, he said.  

“The same rules are going to apply to everybody. I don’t like the look of flexibility for some businesses and not others,” he said.

“In terms of the deck coming down, three deadlines since August with no if’s ands or buts were attached. It is our job to enforce rules even handedly. The citizens charge us with enforcing the ordinances fairly, and not at our whim,” Turpin said. 

Selectman Ted Shane said he came to the meeting having decided that the deck should come down, but he changed his mind.

“Tonight, I was prepared, because there had been three deadlines to take deck down, I was prepared to remove the deck. However, we heard the other businesses — that they were all in favor of social distancing. The other businesses were in agreement that the deck should stay up,” Shane said. 

The town should stick to the resolution of allowing businesses to have more outdoor space this summer, he said. 

“Today we saw cases fall to under 100. Hopefully, we move toward improvement,” Shane said. “I want our businesses to succeed. If we had stopped everything for everybody, the [public’s] fear of going into these businesses and not wearing a mask” would impact the individual businesses.