It appears as if Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll and the city are pulling out all the stops to help keep COVID-19 from spreading any further.
And Wednesday, she broke out the heavy artillery in her efforts to do exactly that– Gov. Charlie Baker.
Driscoll and Baker stood together in Salem to announce plans for new restrictions for the next two weekends to stop people from coming to the city to celebrate Halloween. Among those plans are forced business closures.
Driscoll said she wanted to stop people from what she called “wonderlust” visits to the city.
Although Driscoll and Baker still expect people to enter the city over the next two weekends, they said they are going to do their best to discourage it, and limit it.
First, later in the day this Friday the city will prohibit all MBTA trains from stopping in Salem. Then over the next two weekends they will close the MBTA Salem train stop all day.
The city will triple the fines on Halloween for all violations around town.
Saturday, businesses will be “asked” to close at 8 p.m., and officials will start clearing the city.
On Halloween weekend, officials will make their previous requests “mandatory” and will be shutting all businesses in Salem down at 8 p.m throughout the weekend. Baker, who lives in nearby Swampscott, will have state police on standby to help clear the city if needed.
Also to be closed are city-owned and private parking lots over the next weekends. Officials will not allow tourists or visitors to park at the MBTA garage and will add extra staff to help ticket people who park in neighborhoods around town.
The city also plans to set up more “no parking” areas and close more roads leading into the downtown area. Officials are also setting up 15 “checkpoints” on roads around the city.
The city had previously shut down the month-long “Haunted Happenings” events including stage bands, fireworks, street performers, most vendors, outdoor events, and all the annual city sponsored Halloween celebrations.
