City Council discusses extending mask mandate as pandemic drags on
Athens City Council discussed extending the city’s mask mandate at its meeting Monday evening.
Councilmember Sarah Grace brought forward the potential ordinance amendment, expressing her concerns with the continued high level of COVID-19 cases in Athens and across the United States. The original ordinance was introduced on Aug. 10, 2021 and is set to expire at the end of February.
“As we continue to see really high levels of cases, not just in Athens but globally, I think it is important for us to talk about our local mask ordinance,” Grace said. “I’ve had residents reach out to me with questions about whether or not the mask ordinance would be extended.”
Last August, there were 35,991,203 total cases of COVID in the U.S., according to Grace. Since then, this number has increased by nearly 40,000,000 at 70,641,725 total cases today. While the rate of COVID-19 deaths have not experienced the same growth as the number of cases, likely due to vaccines according to Grace, COVID-19 continues to have an effect on Athens residents and the globe.
“According to the CDC, we are currently at 52.3% of the population five years and up that is vaccinated,” Grace said. “Athens County has had 985 new cases in the past seven days and 25 new hospital admissions.”
Athens is the last city in Ohio that has not adopted its own charter and still has a mask ordinance in place, alongside several charter cities, including Columbus, that have one, according to Mayor Steve Patterson. The ordinance is complaint-based, and it is the Athens City Police Department who is tasked with the enforcement of the mandate.
“People are fairly compliant with putting a mask on, but often is the case where they [the police] get there and whoever was being non-compliant has left,” Patterson said.
Councilmembers Ben Ziff and Alan Swank expressed their support for the extension of the mask mandate.
“As someone who works in the service industry, I really like being able to have some teeth behind me when I tell people they have to put a mask on if they’re going to come inside,” Ziff said. “I know it makes me feel better. I know it makes a lot of my fellow service industry people feel better knowing that we have the backing of an entity like City Council.”
Swank went on to explain that as long as there is a mandate in place law-abiding people will continue to wear a mask, but if the town lifts it those same people may decide to take off their masks.
“I think the more people we have taking off our masks the longer this thing is going to be around,” Swank said.
If City Council moves forward with the amendment, the extension would most likely last three months. From there, councilmembers would decide whether or not to extend the mandate further if the pandemic continues to worsen.
The suggested amendment received support from members of the community as well, including Ohio U student Rhyan Goodman, who is a member of Ohio University Student Senate.
“I don’t think anybody really enjoys wearing the mask a lot, but I think it is something we do to step up for one another and to look out for each other,” Goodman said. “I feel safe walking into an establishment here in Athens making sure that everybody has their mask on. I feel protected, but when I go home, I don’t feel that same comfort.”
In other council news, Councilmember Micah McCarey introduced a change to the city’s discrimination policy that would make discrimination based on a person’s hairstyle or texture unlawful. Currently, there are no federal protections against such discrimination. Additionally, the City and Safety Services Committee discussed the decline in waste and recycling management funds due to the pandemic. With more students on campus there has been an increase in funding, along with a transfer of money from the council’s general fund.
