I'm glad I wasn't taking a walk at Boomer Lake Park when someone was mistakenly trying to make trouble over people not wearing masks. When I'm there, the only people I saw wearing masks appeared to be Asians, but are likely more used to it, in order to protect from air pollution in Asia.
Compliance High as Mask Ordinance Takes EffectDisposable masks are a hot commodity in Stillwater after a city ordinance took effect Saturday, requiring most people over age 5 to wear face coverings while in public.
People who have legitimate medical conditions that cause breathing difficulties, or who have mental health conditions or developmental disabilities that make wearing a face covering an undue hardship are also exempted under guidelines developed by the CDC.
The ordinance was adopted by the Stillwater City Council last week to slow the community spread of COVID-19, now and in preparation for the arrival of thousands of Oklahoma State University students in just a few weeks.
According to the university, it has 24,649 students, 26% of whom are from out of state.
Stillwater’s rate of new infections has slowed and reported recoveries have exceeded new cases in recent days. A majority of new cases have been among younger people, who often don’t become as ill.
But the virus is still putting people in the hospital.
Stillwater Medical Center reported on Monday that it had three COVID-19 patients, one of whom was in ICU.
Most people seem to be complying with the new city ordinance, Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle said. It was a quiet weekend for the most part.
He confirmed that police were called to a grocery store on Saturday morning after a customer refused to put on a mask before entering and began to create a scene. The person had left by the time officers arrived.
Officers were also called to Boomer Lake Park because someone mistakenly thought that people using the park were required to wear masks. That person began yelling at other people.
McNickle said police officers were able to clear up the misunderstanding when they arrived on scene.
The hotline established by the City to take questions and reports of non-compliance received about six calls over the weekend, he said. Several were just questions but at least one person called to report that a few people in a local store that tends to be very busy on the weekends were not wearing face coverings.
McNickle said his personal observation over the weekend was that a vast majority of the people in stores are wearing face coverings. He said others he talked with told him they saw the same.
In an effort to reduce the burden on local businesses that may have had limited time to prepare, the City has been providing disposable face masks for businesses to give to their customers who don’t have face coverings and pre-printed copies of the posters that businesses are required to post to let people know that masks are required.
Both the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce and Visit Stillwater helped distribute the supplies beginning late last week. They each handed out 15,000 disposable masks, 100 per business per day.
Visit Stillwater CEO Cristy Morrison reported that her office only had enough for 15 more businesses by Monday morning.
Stillwater Chamber President/CEO Justin Minges said his office had given out a total of 8,100 masks by the end of the day Friday.
The Chamber was completely out of masks by 9 a.m. Monday, Communications Coordinator Aubrie Bowlan said.
The City of Stillwater, which has allocated $100,000 to provide supplies and to operate both the hotline and a public education campaign, has ordered 30,000 more masks to give to businesses, McNickle said. The last order took about a week to come in and he hopes the new order comes in as fast.
"But they're becoming hard to get," he said.
https://www.stwnewspress.com/news/local_news/compliance-high-as-mask-ordinance-takes-effect/article_5b608621-ea5a-5209-9c6d-42ac68e92e31.html
