Rick Jordan, of Starkville, and his wife have not seen their families in several months due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Jordan works in the service industry and his wife is a teacher, so they both deal with potential exposure to the virus through in-person interactions, even though protective face masks are currently required in Starkville’s businesses and schools.
“If we can just keep this (mask mandate) going for a little while longer, hopefully we can get the numbers down long enough that we can actually get back to some kind of normalcy,” Jordan said.
He said he hopes the Starkville aldermen decide Tuesday to keep the city’s mask requirement even though the statewide requirement ended Wednesday. Businesses have been required since early July to monitor customers both at the entrance and inside in order to ensure that all customers over the age of 6 wear masks and that everyone adheres to social distancing. Stores must also provide signs at the door and markers on the floor reminding customers to stay six feet apart.
Gov. Tate Reeves enacted the statewide mask mandate in early August and let it expire Wednesday, although masks are still required in schools and in businesses such as barber shops that require close contact between people.
However, officials in many cities statewide, including Columbus, Starkville and West Point, have kept their mask ordinances in place.
Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill tweeted Wednesday that the city’s mask mandate would remain in place until the board of aldermen votes to rescind it. The board will discuss the option at Tuesday’s meeting, and Spruill said she expects citizens both for and against the mandate to make their voices heard at the meeting.
She told The Dispatch she believes the city should keep the mandate.
“I see no good reason for us to stop now,” she said. “At some point as we get deeper into this, there will be another evaluation, but for right now, I think it’s the thing to continue to do.”
Mississippi State University’s mask mandate remains in place, and Spruill said there should be consistency between the city’s and MSU’s safety requirements.
The city implemented its first mask mandate April 28 after Reeves’ “shelter in place” order, which lasted most of April, ended and some businesses were allowed to reopen. The aldermen initially planned to keep the mandate until May 11 but lifted it May 9 after Reeves allowed more businesses to reopen. Aldermen then re-implemented the mask mandate on July 7.
Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver is the only board member who voted against both city mandates in April and July, and he requested last week that the board consider removing the current one. He told The Dispatch that people who are concerned about catching the virus should still wear masks, but he believes it should be an individual choice.
He also said removing the mask mandate might improve the local economy by encouraging increased business activity, and the continued functioning of society and the economy means “accepting a manageable level of risk for most.”
“Will we be told to social distance and wear our masks forever? When will it end? When cases go to zero? When there is a vaccine?” Carver said. “It is illogical to believe that we have the ability to really stop a ubiquitous, microscopic virus. What if we tried to eliminate all car wrecks by setting a universal speed limit of 5 (miles per hour)?”
Oktibbeha County supervisors implemented a mask mandate in July for county-owned buildings and social gatherings outside the Starkville city limits. The board has renewed the mandate at each meeting before it can expire, and Board President and District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery said he does not know if the board will consider extending it again at Monday’s meeting.
As of 6 p.m. Friday, Oktibbeha County has 1,848 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 53 deaths, while Mississippi has 100,167 cases and 3,011 deaths, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health website.
‘Common sense’ or having ‘the option’
Beverly Lasster used to teach at a school with a predominantly Black student body. She said two former students of hers recently died of COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected Black Americans, so “this virus is real” to her and she supports a continued mask requirement.
“It’s really the only thing we’ve got,” Lasster said. “If it helps anyone, why do people have such a problem with it?”
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty agrees.
“It seems to be very effective, and I can’t see rescinding that and everybody going back to no masks and pretending like there’s nothing going on,” he said. “It’s just common sense.”
Ward 6 Alderman and Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins said he does not want to rescind the mask mandate until scientific evidence indicates it’s safe to do so.
“The mask mandate (should) stay in place until we’ve received a medical opinion from a well-known, reputable medical expert in the field of infectious disease control,” Perkins said.
The numbers of new COVID-19 cases per week have been decreasing both locally and statewide, and Jordan said requiring masks might be the reason for this.
Starkville resident Kate Ware told The Dispatch she too supports a continued mandate.
“The numbers are getting better, but I don’t think they’ve improved enough that we need to stop wearing masks,” she said.
But Jourdan Winkler, who recently moved from Oktibbeha County to Webster County but commutes to Starkville for work, shares Carver’s view that wearing masks should be left up to the individual.
“I think the majority of people understand the importance of what we’ve been doing, but I also believe that same majority, or a significant portion of that majority at least, want the option,” Winkler said. “They want to be able to make the right decision on their own. It’s like if we were to make everybody take flu shots, though I understand it’s a bit more drastic. Folks just don’t like being made to do things.”
Webster County does not have a mask requirement, and Winkler said he would prefer to have to follow the same rules and regulations everywhere, as with the statewide mandate.
William Pochop, a former city employee and now a financial representative with Modern Woodmen of America, said he believes the public should “be respectful of everyone and how they want to proceed with this” and is not fully on board with a mask mandate from the government.
However, he also recognizes the continued threat of the virus, he said, especially since five of his family members work in the medical field.
“I would prefer not to wear a mask because they’re not comfortable, they’re annoying and it’s harder to breathe, but they’re not really all that bad,” Pochop said. “If wearing a mask is enough to prevent one person from contracting the disease, I’m happy to help.”
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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