Customers and employees at Starkville businesses are strongly encouraged, but no longer required, to wear protective face coverings as the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic continues, the board of aldermen decided in a 4-2 vote at a special-call meeting Saturday.
Gov. Tate Reeves’ executive order on Friday allows gyms, barber shops and hair and nail salons to reopen with restrictions. They have been closed since April 3, when Reeves enacted a “shelter in place” order that ended April 27.
Employees of gyms, “personal grooming facilities” such as salons and barber shops, and restaurants and bars providing in-house dining are still required to wear masks, per the executive order.
The city previously required both employees and customers to wear masks as some businesses started to reopen in late April with Reeves’ permission. The board then lifted the mask requirement for restaurant customers at its Tuesday meeting in response to Reeves allowing restaurants to provide limited in-house dining again.
City Attorney Chris Latimer said Saturday that Reeves’ last few orders basically eliminated the distinction between “essential” and “non-essential” businesses, and Mayor Lynn Spruill said the reopening of both restaurants and gyms made it inappropriate to require a mask everywhere.
“It became apparent that it was picking and choosing, which makes it somewhat arbitrary in how we do this,” Spruill said. “I had actually thought we would wait until the (week of) the 18th to remove the masks, but with the gyms being added to the governor’s order, I felt like now was an appropriate time so we don’t find ourselves appearing to be capricious in how we choose who does and does not wear a mask.”
Aldermen Ben Carver of Ward 1, Sandra Sistrunk of Ward 2, Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins of Ward 6 and Henry Vaughn of Ward 7 voted for the resolution. Ward 3 Alderman David Little was absent but had spoken against the mask requirement at past meetings.
Aldermen Jason Walker of Ward 4 and Hamp Beatty of Ward 5 voted against the resolution and advocated for a continued mask requirement.
“If the city doesn’t keep this requirement on their people, half our population is going to go into stores without a mask on, and that puts the other half and the employees at risk,” Beatty said. “That to me is an undue risk, and I know this may invite legal (response), but we’re all in uncharted waters.”
Carver repeated a point he made at previous meetings, saying the decision to wear a mask is a matter of “personal responsibility” because “it’s called freedom and it’s what our country is founded on.”
Walker responded by saying freedom in America does not mean people can do whatever they want.
“This is a public health crisis,” he said. “It’s not like we’re taking away somebody’s individual rights to do something permanently, so I think that’s a little disingenuous. If we’re going to be a team, you have to be a team. I would strongly recommend that everybody continue to wear a mask for the foreseeable future despite what a few local people might have to say.”
Sistrunk addressed Carver with a point that Dr. Cameron Huxford, the Intensive Care Unit medical director at OCH Regional Medical Center, told the board at its Tuesday meeting.
“You’re not wearing that mask to protect yourself (from catching COVID-19),” she said. “You’re wearing that mask to protect me, and I would appreciate it if you would do a bit to protect me, Alderman Vaughn, Alderman Beatty and anyone else in our town who’s older. The mask says more about your thoughts toward your contributions to our community’s public health than it does to the idea that it’s somehow keeping you safe as you go out and about.”
‘An assumption of the risk’
Beatty and Walker both said the local and state pressure to reopen businesses is fueled by a desire to revive the economy. Sistrunk said she understood that local businesses still might not have many customers even though they are allowed to reopen.
“I think what we’re about to see is the free market at work,” she said. “I think we’ll see that businesses that are responsive and understand that people are concerned about this will step up and have some accommodations for people who are uncomfortable coming into their shops.”
Spruill told The Dispatch after the meeting that the city could not keep the mask requirement in place indefinitely.
“It is rapidly becoming an assumption of the risk, both on a personal basis and on a business basis,” she said. “If you’re a businessperson, then sharing with your community the safest and best way to have everybody come in and feel comfortable — whether it’s different hours or requiring everybody to wear a mask — that’s a business decision. At some point in time, the government has to back out of some things.”
The resolution allows the city’s parks to reopen Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and requires visitors to maintain six feet of distance between them. Indoor facilities are limited to a maximum of 10 people, and outdoor facilities are limited to a maximum of 20.
The resolution also extended the city’s 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew until May 19 after it had been set at Tuesday’s meeting to expire Monday.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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