(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 this (Tues.) morning to lift the mask mandate at the courthouse effective immediately.
It followed a meeting with the county’s public health officials who recommended the supervisors not take the action yet in order to get more of the population vaccinated first. However supervisor Kim Wermersen said it’s time now to take the action, adding it boils down to a matter of personal responsibility…
“I think here in the courthouse we’ve put up plexiglass shields, we’ve put in the best ventilation system there is. Here’s the catchall: we get people for minutes or eight hours a day. The rest of the time they’re out and about doing their thing. If you want to talk about masks go to Wal-Mart. Nobody’s wearing masks in Wal-Mart.”
Fellow supervisor Tim Fairchild disagreed, saying he’s opting to follow the advice of public health officials. He added the supervisors shouldn’t rule by consensus…
“So what I’m hearing now is we’re going to start ruling here on consensus. So the next time Dan gets the report that a bridge needs to close we’re going to take a bunch of people out there and say ha, ha…bull. People can make their own decisions. This bridge is safe if they want it to be safe. I don’t think it works that way. The next time. Let’s talk about canadian thistles. If you have a canadian thistle on your pasture someone’s going to tell you have to cut it. We violate people’s liberties all the time here. I don’t look at it that way. I’m going to support our Board of Health in the regard. I would beg you to at least wait 30 days. If you have to rule by herd mentality at this point, please consider giving everybody a chance to vaccinated before you do it.”
The motion by supervisor Jeff Thee carried 3 to 2, with Fairchild and supervisor chairman Bill Leupold voting no.
