A growing number of communities are urging Gov. Chris Sununu to close campgrounds in the state to keep sick tourists away.
“As far as I can tell, most residents think it would be a terrible idea to open any of the campgrounds right now,” Bartlett Board of Selectman Chair Gene Chandler said Wednesday as more Granite Staters are voicing concern about Sununu’s decision to allow campgrounds to open amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New Hampshire Municipal Association’s Board of Directors sent a letter to Sununu Monday outlining their concerns.
On Tuesday, Conway selectmen voted to write a similar letter, and Town Manager Tom Holmes wrote to the governor’s office Wednesday.
“We are already seeing hundreds of visitors coming up on weekends,” said the letter signed by selectmen’s chairman David Weathers. “We are observing many violations of your orders regarding quarantining and sheltering in place. We are receiving numerous complaints regarding the continued use of short-term rentals by out of state people. And, we are seeing groups of people from out of state not practicing social distancing. … We unanimously and strongly believe that opening the campgrounds is not safe for the residents of Conway at this time.”
At an April 16 press conference, Sununu said “there has been a lot of concern” about the campgrounds opening. But he and other state leaders are continuing to craft a “guidance directive that would allow them to stay open.”
On Tuesday, Sununu held another press conference.
“The issue of the week is really campgrounds,” he said. “The biggest concerns we’re hearing are from those communities and businesses in those communities where there are campgrounds that frankly just don’t want people from Massachusetts in their town.”
Sununu said it’s a “real concern” that campers from Massachusetts would spread the virus in New Hampshire.
“If folks don’t feel comfortable and it’s not going to work, then I’m not above having to close them, but we are trying to make it work for individuals and keep things in a box such that we can give folks confidence that by keeping them open we’re not going to be spreading the virus in any different way,” said Sununu.
“We are looking at Carroll County, Grafton, Coos that don’t have incredibly high infection rates right now — it’s very understandable they want to make sure that doesn’t come in and spread throughout their community.”
Sununu said restaurants and hotels could also attract Massachusetts customers, so care has to be taken in opening them up.
Chandler said he called Margaret Byrnes, the municipal association’s executive director and asked her to do a follow-up letter on social distancing.
He said that the campgrounds “can put the campers 2 inches apart if they want to, that’s not the issue. The issue is what happens when they come out of the campgrounds on their daily jaunts for groceries, gasoline and other necessities.”
In her letter sent Monday to Sununu, Byrnes said the board of directors voted unanimously to ask him to close the campgrounds for the foreseeable future.
“In a period when municipalities are facing many unprecedented challenges, the opening of campgrounds in the state has been the single biggest concern we have heard about from cities and towns in the last two weeks; the issue also has dominated the biweekly legal conference calls run by the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management,” Byrnes wrote.
Thirteen cities and 221 towns fall under the non-profit, non-partisan Municipal Association.
The New Hampshire Campground Owners Association’s website lists 150 member campgrounds.
“Campgrounds are inherently social gathering spots, more so than most hotels, with shared facilities like restrooms and showers, and they frequently attract people from urban areas outside New Hampshire to small towns, swelling their populations,” Byrnes wrote. “The police chief in South Hampton has stated that his town’s population will triple when the campgrounds open. The town of Albany, population 738, has seven campgrounds. Because campers tend to stay for longer periods than hotel guests, they often shop at local grocery and convenience stores, pharmacies, and other establishments, coming into contact with many local residents.”
She added: “All of this puts New Hampshire residents at significantly increased risk of contracting COVID-19.”
Rep. Anita Burroughs, a Bartlett Democrat began circulating an online petition last week that by Wednesday had gathered more than 2,540 signatures. “Governor Sununu, we urge you to protect the health of our seniors, our children, and other vulnerable individuals by keeping our campgrounds closed,” it said.
Bob Moore of Effingham, who works in a campground, signed the petition.
“I just think if the locals cannot go out to eat, cannot hike, cannot fish and cannot be together, why should we invite people from other states to come here,” he wrote.
During Tuesday’s Conway selectmen’s meeting Weathers said opening the campgrounds would encourage people from out of state to go north where there are fewer cases. “That puts the burden on the communities up here,” he said.
Conway Village Fire Chief Steve Solomon noted that Sununu’s emergency order closed lodging establishments and short-term rentals.
By opening campgrounds, “we’d really be encouraging people from out of state income to our state, and specifically to our town in the Mount Washington Valley.”
Selectman Carl Thibodeau said he got an email from state Sen. Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican, stating the governor was looking for input on draft guidance and that Bradley would try to make sure the selectmen got a copy.
Thibodeau said: “My theory is that (the campers are) going to get up here running around the valley, and the next thing you know, we’re going to be the next COVID-19 hot spot. I don’t think that this has been clearly thought out at the governor’s office.”
Selectman Steve Porter said the idea of opening campgrounds is foolish. “I’ve already been contacted by people that have been frustrated with certain hiking spots that are being overrun by people that have come up here to get out of hot zones,” said Porter. “You turn around and allow campers to come up here, they are just going to overrun the area.”
Holmes said Conway Police Chief Ed Wagner also is against having the campgrounds open.
Selectmen voted 5-0 to send Sununu a letter saying they are against the opening of campgrounds.
“It’s going to work out in our favor that they do close the campgrounds,” said Weathers. “I haven’t heard of any group other than the campground association that’s in favor of this.”
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