(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors today (Tues.) heard a formal request from public health officials and the President and CEO of Lakes Regional Healthcare for a universal mask mandate in the the county. Dr. Zac Borus of Dickinson County Public Health told the supervisors additional mitigation measures are becoming more and more crucial as the pandemic starts to make more of toll on healthcare workers and facilities…
“If we can do anything, even if it’s marginally effective, though it’s more than that, to have people wearing masks, I would say why would we not do so. Especially since we are funding the hospital care of these folks for the most part either through tax revenue or through our insurance premiums, the hospital is missing out on revenue that they usually would get through joint surgeries and other things that are being canceled, and really it’s our job and it’s your job, I would argue, to protect our citizens. And so anything that we can do, we should be doing it in my mind.”
Supervisor Chairman Bill Leupold said he was concerned over how such a mandate would be enforced…
“It’s a tool and we need to use it. But you can’t fix stupid. You just can’t. And so I really don’t see the use of having a mandate if it can’t be enforced.”
Supervisor Tim Fairchild agreed, but said he thinks the county should atleast take some sort of a stance either by issuing a proclamation or resolution…
“The thing that has amazed me about this whole thing is how many people, the sheer number of people, that are willing to do so little to help such a small, vulnerable group so much. That has just amazed me in this whole issue when it comes to masking. It’s a simple thing to do, it doesn’t hurt. I would support some sort of a proclamation or a resolution. I mean we did it for soybeans, we did it for bees, we could do it for masks. I think the idea you send, you send a very clear message this is what we expect and this is what we know.”
The supervisors voted unanimously in favor of a motion to draft a proclamation to the affect of encouraging masks be worn in all public settings, regardless of whether or not you are in six feet of another person, and urges residents to avoid large gatherings of people. The proclamation will be presented to the supervisors for action at their meeting next week.
