NASHVILLE — Under Indiana’s stay-at-home order, Brown County State Park and nearby Yellowwood State Forest are allowed to stay open, with restrictions.
So are short-term rental properties, like hotels and motels, and restaurants that offer carry-out food and beverages.
The state’s rules about “essential” and “non-essential” businesses and travel, extended until April 20, have left leaders wondering about tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Is Brown County — one of the state’s most popular day-trip destinations — “open” to visitors? And should it be?
On April 4, nearly two weeks after Gov. Eric Holcomb issued his initial executive order, the Brown County Commissioners and Brown County Emergency Management Agency issued an “orange” travel notice, recommending “only essential travel, such as to and from work or in emergency situations,” or for grocery shopping, gas and medications.
This was a 60-plus-degree Saturday, and reports were coming in of visitors congregating in Brown County State Park, Yellowwood State Forest and even the parking lot of the local IGA.
The governor and other state officials have pleaded with Hoosiers to “hunker down” and take the virus threat seriously, while also encouraging people to visit a state park for exercise and the good of their mental health.
“Please do the right thing by us, and close the state properties (Brown County State Park, Yellowwood campgrounds, etc.) to discourage the continued unessential and unnecessary travel into our community!” read a letter to the governor signed by County Commissioner Diana Biddle on April 4.
“This is not a vacation,” she added.
Holcomb announced on Monday, April 6, that state park campgrounds would be closed.
But in response to a question about whether hiking or mountain biking would still be allowed at the parks, the answer, from general counsel Joseph Heerens, was that “the campgrounds are closed, obviously, public and private parks around the state, the parks themselves stay open.”
The governor’s executive orders, updated April 6, say that “shared or outdoor spaces” can be used as long as people are practicing social distancing of at least 6 feet from anyone who does not reside in their household. Campgrounds closed as of 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, April 7, except for people staying in RVs or cabins there because they have nowhere else.
The concerns
Jane Ellis, executive director of the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau, has been having weekly phone calls with the Indiana Department of Tourism Development and the lieutenant governor’s office about tourism and the pandemic.
The message and advice keep changing, she said.
On April 3, the message was mostly about online stores and virtual activities, with a link that told visitors that “all of Brown County’s trails are open and ready to be tackled.” It told visitors to keep their distance from others and to not use playgrounds, which are closed.
Ellis said she made up her mind a long time ago that “the smartest thing to do in this kind of situation is to follow the government.”
Brown County had three confirmed cases of the virus as of April 3. By April 6, confirmed cases had risen to seven.
“I am absolutely convinced that if tourists and people are allowed to shelter in place and hunker down in guest cabins, that they will absolutely increase the numbers we have of sick people and deplete what little resources we do have,” said Dr. Norman Oestrike, Brown County’s health officer, on April 3.
Brown County has one grocery store, one pharmacy, three gas stations, all volunteer firefighters, two EMS trucks and no hospital, Public Health Preparedness Coordinator Corey Frost pointed out.
“My opinion, we are a rural county, and we need to do everything we can to protect our residents,” Oestrike said. “… There are other areas of the country that have shifted to tremendous hot spots of this disease from visitors, visitors who want to quarantine and hang out in the rental properties, the resorts, the beaches. Our demographics are such that we have a lot of older folks who are particularly vulnerable. … Anyone who comes to this county can be healthy and spread the disease,” he said. “And the World Health Organization, the CDC, the Indiana State Department of Health and yours truly, your local health officer, absolutely believe that we have to stop travel and shelter at home. And home is not a tourist or guest home.”
Over the weekend, a petition began circulating on change.org asking the governor to “please enforce the stay-at-home rule and protect Brown County!” It had received more than 1,300 signatures as of April 6. Posted with it was a photo of a full parking lot taken at Yellowwood Lake on April 4.
People should not be day-tripping to state parks, Holcomb clarified at an April 2 press conference.
“We’re not encouraging people to take day trips and make multiple stops to go out and exercise,” Holcomb said. “… If you live close to state parks, those are ideal places to go in and take deep breaths, contemplate and reflect and get some exercise in.”
But that also can be done in your own neighborhood, he added.
Visitors from all over are still coming, Oestrike said.
“I can tell you that my level tour of the county, maybe last Sunday or Saturday, the Abe Martin Lodge was closed, the campground was not closed, the mountain bike pathways were open, and people on mountain bikes were congregating everyplace, license plates from all over the state and neighboring states, and they were not social distancing,” he said.
‘Essential’ or not?
Under Holcomb’s stay-at-home order, rentals for lodging are essential businesses, said Amy Howell, director of communications and media relations for the Indiana Office of Tourism Development.
“Unless you work for an essential business or are doing an essential activity, you must stay home,” she said on March 27. But also, “People are allowed to travel to a place they feel safe.”
The governor’s office did not fully answer a clarification question at the April 6 press conference about whether or not vacation cabins were treated the same as hotels and motels, which are deemed “essential.”
Up until last week, Hills O’Brown Vacation Rentals was still receiving calls, said Patty Frensemeier, general manager.
“We’re not sure how we feel about that,” she told Brown County COAD at the March 25 meeting. The day before, she’d received eight calls seeking rentals for the next day, she said.
“Their kids are stressed. We hear that a lot,” she said about callers’ reasons for wanting to come and stay here.
By the March 30 COAD meeting, Frensemeier said bookings had slowed, and so was business at hotels. “All that business is pretty much halted,” she said.
Nashville Town Council President Jane Gore issued an order in late March to close public restrooms downtown, since most shops are closed. If any “nonessential” businesses are open, they should close voluntarily in order to protect people from possible spread of the virus, Gore said.
Oestrike said he’d received one report of a “nonessential” business still operating in the county. To enforce the governor’s orders, they’d have to call the state police, and they hadn’t done that yet, he said on April 3. He was hoping that “education and compliance and peer pressure” would work, “to make these people understand that this is deadly.”
State and federal resources are available for business owners who think they have to keep operating just to pay the bills or feed their family, he said.
“Nobody wants to hurt a business in Brown County or anywhere else, but conversely, if they are the cause of infection in our county, and the causes of deaths … just so they can make a buck, personally, I think that’s wrong,” he said.
“I want everybody to be successful, but I want everybody to be alive at the end of this.”
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Interpretive naturalists at Brown County and other state parks are posting videos of hikes and presentations and live-streaming programs online.
Topics include wildflower walks, nature talks, live critter feedings, history programs, craft tutorials, preschool programs, property tours and more, and range from 5 to 50 minutes.
Virtual programs can be found on individual park Facebook pages, or a listing can be found on the Indiana DNR calendar, www.calendar.dnr.IN.gov. You can find these programs by using the "Advanced Search" feature and choosing the “Virtual” category or typing “Virtual” in the keyword search.
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