(Spirit Lake)– The second phase of re-opening the Dickinson County Courthouse to the public kicked in on Monday of this week. County Supervisor Kim Wermersen was on hand for it and told fellow board members Tuesday things went well. He says about 90 members of the general public went through the courthouse that day.
Among other things, courthouse patrons are required to wear face masks. Assistant County Attorney Lonnie Saunders commented on that mandate during Tuesday’s meeting…
“The question I was presented with was whether or not it was appropriate to require face masks for all visitors because it’s a public building. It absolutely is appropriate to do that. It’s taking place all over the country. There’s some question about what was going on in Muscatine, and that’s a little different situation because the city fathers of Muscatine were requiring people to wear masks everywhere, not just in their own buildings they control and so there was some blow back about that and whether or not they had authority to do that. But I don’t think there’s any question that you have authority to require people to wear face masks in your building, a building that you control.”
Saunders added, however, a provision should be put into place in the event a visitor to the courthouse refuses to wear a mask citing medical reasons. In that event, Saunders recommended the person making that request should be required to provide proof from a physician.
Under the second phase of reopening the courthouse, occupancy of the various offices remains very limited.
