SAUGUS — Health officials in Saugus are re-examining the town’s COVID-19 restrictions on businesses after receiving complaints from residents.
At Thursday’s Board of Health meeting, chair William Heffernan said he and other members had received several phone calls and “quite a bit of feedback” from residents calling for modifications to the new rules, which were implemented early last week.
Created in accordance with Gov. Charlie Baker’s orders, the restrictions currently allow no more than 25 people in any of Saugus’s convenience stores at one time; no more than 50 inside Target stores, Ocean State Job Lot, Lowes, or Home Depot; no more than 75 inside Trader Joes and J. Pace; no more than 150 inside other grocery stores, including Stop & Shop and Big Y; and no more than 100 inside Walmart stores.
“Limiting the number of customers in establishments will help mitigate the spread of the virus and protect essential businesses’ work base,” a statement from town health officials said.
Among those asking for a change was Board of Selectmen chair Anthony Cogliano, who suggested easing restrictions on some of the town’s larger businesses, saying that the new guidelines don’t take into account the physical size of a space.
According to Cogliano, the 50-person limit at the town’s Home Depot accounts for roughly one percent of the business’s 200,000 square feet.
“To me, (that’s) completely unreasonable,” he said, adding the restrictions have, at times, resulted in an hour-long wait outside Home Depot’s front door.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who can explain that that’s safer than filtering people through the store,” he said. “Home Depot and Lowe’s, to me, have been so grossly understated. They’ve been doing this for a week now, and those lines get worse and worse every day.”
Cogliano also noted that lines form almost as soon as the stores open in the mornings.
“At 8:15 a.m., there are almost 40 people in line,” he said. “It’s insane. There’s one person per aisle in the store.
“I understand (the board) needs to start somewhere, but I think it’s obvious (some stores) need to be adjusted.”
Heffernan later said the board wanted to give the guidelines a trial run to see how each location was affected.
“Obviously the 50-person limit at (some places), after getting feedback, we realize that’s limiting,” he said. “(We’re) going to review where we’re at and modify as needed, and I think we’ll do that going forward.”
Heffernan also said the board had anticipated it would need to modify its restrictions.
“In our last meeting where we instituted this, we said ‘let’s just try this out and see what happens,'” he said. “We lacked foresight in considering each business individually. It’s different for a home improvement store versus a grocery store obviously.
“I think the intent is to really take each business individually and say, ‘okay, alright, this one should stay at 50 people, this one can go to 150.’ That’s kind of the path we’re on now.”
He emphasized that although he agreed with some resident complaints, his ultimate priority was keeping the residents of Saugus safe.
“Some people have been upset and some people don’t like the restrictions, but at the end of the day, the public’s health is what’s important,” he said. “People generally understand that, (but) they would like to see some modifications based on what the business is and the size of it.”