July 4 Drama Seizes Small Massachusetts Town

NORTH BROOKFIELD, MA — From Natick to Northampton, everyone agreed: July 4 is canceled this year in Massachusetts. No flag-waving parades or children holding bright sparklers. No firework shows, no brassy music down at the town bandstand. It's not worth the health risk.

But in North Brookfield, a town of 4,800 about 20 miles west of Worcester, the town elders thought they could make July 4 happen. They envisioned a residents-only gathering of about 250 people with a parade, patriotic laser show and performance by local band Tequila Mockingbird. After months of lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, it would be a treat to celebrate the nation's birthday as if the virus was gone.

That is, until the Board of Health got involved.

The North Brookfield Board of Selectmen this week canceled its July 4 event following a week-long spat that made headlines across the state. The fight over the town's celebration touched on all aspects of recent national events, from Blacks Lives Matter protests to coronavirus skepticism — with a heavy dose of small-town politics thrown in.

The controversy was lit June 23 during a Board of Selectmen meeting, when Board of Health member Ethan Melad confronted Selectmen Chair Dale Kiley about the July 4 plans.

"I want to advise the Board of Selectmen to reconsider and cancel this Fourth of July event," Melad, a local furniture builder, said. "This is, without a doubt in my opinion, not the time to risk the health and safety that you, the Board of Selectmen, claim to represent."

"Now it's my turn," Kiley, a former state trooper, retorted. Kiley said that the number of coronavirus cases in Massachusetts is at all-time low (just 16 in North Brookfield), and that "getting the virus is not a death sentence" for people who don't have an underlying condition or live in a nursing home. He also wondered why it was OK for Black Lives Matter demonstrations to happen in the town, but not July 4.

Coronavirus has been receding in Massachusetts in recent weeks, but it's not gone. The state added 195 new cases as of Thursday, plus 51 more deaths. And the virus is increasing in the U.S. with a record 50,000 new cases added on Thursday as states like Texas, California, and Florida surge.

Concerned about a possible local relapse, the North Brookfield health board on June 25 issued a public statement saying that it could not condone any July 4 festivities, even with cases on the wane. The board also seemingly accused the selectmen of playing politics with the pandemic.

Of particular concern to the Board of Health was the Board of Selectmen's response to enforcing face coverings. A citizen had written to the Selectmen in May asking why people were being allowed to shop at the local Hannaford mask-free. In response to the letter, selectmen voted to ban town police from enforcing any public health orders issued by either Gov. Charlie Baker or the Board of Health.

"When a Board of Selectmen collectively and 'unanimously' calls the current health crisis 'COVID hysteria' in open defiance of the health and well-being of the citizens of North Brookfield, the Board of Health cannot condone or encourage such a gathering as it is counter to the health and safety of the residents," the health board's June 23 statement read.

The health board also pointed out that the town would be in violation of Baker's order if it went ahead with the July 4 gathering. Just this week, Baker warned state residents not to take "victory laps" over the Independence Day weekend.

"It's not going to take the summer off," he said Thursday.

The media noticed that June 25 Facebook post, and the story spread from WHDH to the Boston Globe, with some outlets taking notice of the political aspects of the spat.

"And, perhaps predictably in these polarized times, the dispute over how to celebrate the nation’s independence in the town of around 5,000 residents is breaking along political lines," Globe reporter Steve Annear wrote in a June 30 story.

The pressure grew too high. On July 1, selectmen canceled the July 4 celebration. In a 366-word news release, selectmen labeled the Board of Health hypocrites, and blamed them for potentially attracting "thousands of people" to North Brookfield's homespun July 4 event due to all the publicity.

"The [Selectmen] are cognizant of the incendiary times in which we are living and unlike the members of the Board of Health who seem arbitrarily concerned with public health only when it fits their political ideology, we will not expose our residents to the public health and public safety risks artificially created by the BOH’s unconstitutional silencing of the free expression of their neighbors," one passage of the news release reads.

Selectmen concluded with a promise, or perhaps a threat: North Brookfield will still hold a July 4 event soon on "a date yet to be determined."