FALMOUTH – As a longtime Falmouth resident continues his daily exercise routine on the Falmouth Bike Path, he’s begun to notice a concerning trend: more people, less masks, and not always six feet of distance.
“The bike path is not wide,” explains Gene Bourque, who has walked the path almost every day for the past two years rain or shine. “What’s disturbing to me is when I see runners and especially bike riders panting, huffing and puffing with no mask,” says Bourque, pointing out that there are several signs throughout the path asking those using the trail to wear one. “I wear a mask and I feel they should understand I’m trying to protect them as much as I protect myself. The bottom line with me is it’s not hard to do, why not do it?”
Falmouth Health Agent Scott McGann confirmed that, in accordance with COVID-19 Order No. 31 as issued by Governor Baker on May 6, 2020 masks are required if those using the path are not able to social distance in situations such as when passing someone.
“Bike paths fall under the general order guidance which requires face coverings to be worn outdoors when social distancing is not possible,” McGann explained. For the most part, however, McGann believes the path to be relatively safe and described it as a “low-risk” area.
“Two people on each side of the path are about 6’ apart and as you pass others it’s for a brief moment. Only when passing or being passed by are you definitely closer than 6 feet but that is a matter of seconds and it’s outside.” Due to this low risk factor, McGann reports there are “no staff going up and down the bike path for such a low risk level.”
Bourque agrees it shouldn’t be up to the Town to enforce mask-wearing, but that path users should be respectful of others.
“It would be one thing if (Covid) got worse than the worst point this year and there had to be complete lockdowns-and that could certainly still happen. I do feel that unless it’s an absolute emergency that towns shouldn’t dictate mask-wearing. I think people should just use common sense.”
Yet the lack of masks Bourque witnesses daily is the problem. The town has been counting on individuals to be responsible. “People who use the path need to be considerate of others and wear the mask when passing or when stopped on the side such as sitting on a bench,” said McGann.
Outside of Falmouth, owners of the Quincy Farmers Market, Janet Little & Kevin Dye say they’ve seen varying levels of enforcement in their experience working alongside fellow markets on the South Shore during the pandemic.
Within their own market, the couple says they were required to ensure shoppers complied with a staggering twenty-four categories of rules. Now up and running, the husband and wife team say they are facing a similar challenge to that being reported on the Falmouth Bike Path: a rapid escalation of people refusing to follow state-set mandates.
Dye says he’ll be the first to say the rules, while necessary, can be confusing.
“There’s a difference in rules for supermarkets versus a farmer’s market, and people don’t understand that. At the market, people can infect the farmer and if we infect the farmer, the whole farm can go down. At many of our farms we have migrant workers that move from orchard to orchard, and if we infect them we can infect the entire New England local food market. So there’s a very big responsibility here,” he said.
Despite their best efforts, the market has already had four high-risk incidents that causes them to worry not only for Little’s sister for whom she cares directly. Little’s sister was one of the 650 people that in 1965 was a victim of polio, and is now at age 70 paraplegic and in an extreme high-risk group.
The first incident occurred on Friday, September 25th when a man hoping to enter the farmer’s market early began agitating other customers in line. Hoping to avoid a conflict, Dye says he gave in and allowed the man in early.
Once he did, the man began touching produce he did not purchase, violating the six foot rule several times, and after being asked to leave the shopper squeezed by a protective barrier causing an “explosive moment” with a farmer before turning to lay his hands on Dye.
It was a situation that could cost the small market dearly: such violations can cost nearly $1,800 in fines and more in losses if it lead to a shutdown of the market. In a second incident, Dye was threatened by a woman who attempted to run him over with her car after he confronted her about violating 3 rules that would have cost $900 in fines and serious injury to himself or others.
“They ignored 4 blackboard signs, two chalk signs on the ground, x marks all over the place and two security guards. They just disobeyed and walked through,” he recalls. “I explained, ’Please, you can get back in your car and drive to the entrance, or it’s a nice day you can walk around, I’ll bring some disinfectant down here, and we’ll walk you to the back of the line.’ So I signaled to the other manager to bring me some hand sanitizer, see if I could bring the tension down and try to accommodate them. There’s a lot of rules, and it can be confusing,” he admits.
That’s when the woman allegedly returned to her car, started the engine, and began jumping the vehicle towards Dye and the market. The third incident occurred when Little asked that four men respect the six-foot distance between the farmer, who in turn came very close to her refusing to separate until Dye stepped in.
The fourth was when a husband and wife attempted to bypass the line to sanitize their hands to see what a certain vendor had to offer. “The husband started walking up and ignoring me so I asked him to please go back. The wife got in my face and started screaming at me, ‘He can go wherever he wants! You can’t tell him where he can go!’ and I said ‘Well, actually that’s not true,’ but that’s just the way people’s attitudes are.”
It is this type of reaction, Bourque says, that he fears if he approached someone for not wearing a mask on the Falmouth Bike Path. “Just seeing how many people were not wearing masks I just stopped going from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening. I won’t go because walking, biking, rollerblading, running..the vast majority just won’t wear masks.” When asked how he felt when being told if he didn’t like not wearing a mask he should just stay home, Bourque says he could not understand such a mindset. “I think it’s absurd, it’s absolutely absurd and selfish. Again, we’re not asking you to strap one arm behind your back or hop on one foot. This is a very, very simple thing that can make a huge difference. It seems like an ego issue more than anything else to me.”
By Emmalyn Reid, Cape Wide News
