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The state of Vermont is suspending service at its highway rest areas, saying that it’s too difficult to staff them during the COVID-19 crisis.
Twelve of the state’s 16 rest areas closed Thursday; the other four – one each in Bennington and Guilford, and two in Williston – were due to close at 3 p.m. Friday.
Many of the people who work at the rest areas are over the age of 60 or in some other way meet the criteria identified by the Centers for Disease Control as being at particular risk from the virus. Some have said they’re reluctant to come to work, and anyone who wants to has been allowed to remain at home, said Chris Cole, commissioner of the state’s Department of Buildings and General Services.
Staff have also stayed home to take care of children who are out of school or of family members, Cole said.
“These are great retirement jobs for people, but people are concerned in this pandemic because they are meeting the public” by working at the rest areas, Cole said.
The Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce is managing three of the rest areas, in Williston on I-89 northbound and southbound, and on I-89 southbound in Georgia.
“I’ve unilaterally said nobody over the age of 70 is working in those facilities,” said Tom Torti, the director of the Chamber. He added that the rest areas had been on what he called a “high-touch” cleaning protocol, with surfaces being wiped down every hour.
“So we’re running out of sanitizer, things like that,” he said. “It’s the same problem other people are having.”
The rest area in Bennington is operated by the Bennington Chamber of Commerce. The state Department of Buildings and General Services manages the rest of them. As the department has met staff requests to stay home, it has had to limit the hours of some rest areas and close others entirely because it didn’t have the staff to operate them, Cole said Thursday night. He added that while the buildings will be closed, the parking lots will be open.
Torti said about 750,000 people stop at the rest areas each year.
“Our numbers are down, but we’re still seeing hundreds of people each day coming in,” he said.
The highway rest areas in Alburgh, Bradford, Derby Line, Fair Haven, Georgia (northbound and southbound) Hartford, Lyndonville, Randolph, Sharon, and Waterford closed at 6 p.m. Thursday. The downtown Montpelier information booth for travelers, which is also managed by Buildings and General Services, also closed Thursday.
Cole emphasized that service at the rest areas is being suspended, and they’re not being closed down. They will reopen when there are employees available to operate them, he said.
Earlier this week, Gov. Phil Scott ordered restaurants to close their dining rooms and operate only with take-out or delivery. Many restaurants, business and other establishments closed altogether last week. Closing the rest area buildings removes another option for the traveling public to find a bathroom, a fact that Cole acknowledged.
“Right now, the governor is putting out a series of executive orders, and we’re basically slowly limiting the places where people congregate,” he said. “This is a service we were trying to maintain for the traveling public.”
