County board votes to opt out of governor's mask mandate

The Cloud County board of commissioners voted unanimously to highly recommend, but not mandate, the wearing of face masks or other face coverings in public spaces during a special meeting Friday morning.

As was reported by KNCK News, about 30 people attended the special meeting, that lasted nearly an hour and a half, both in person and via Zoom video conferencing.

In response to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in Kansas, Governor Laura Kelly signed an executive order on Thursday requiring the wearing of face masks when inside public spaces, including the workplace, or in situations where social distancing of six feet cannot be maintained.

Exempt from the order includes all Kansans under the age of five, those with medical conditions along with others specifically outlined in the order.

The Kansas legislature passed House Bill 2016 last month that allows individual counties to adopt provisions to the governor's orders that are “less stringent”.

The motion passed by the county commission during the meeting prevents the governor's emergency order from being enforced, even by a civil lawsuit.

Following about an hour of public comments on the topic of wearing masks, during which 17 people spoke, the board chairman Bill Czpanskiy moved to adopt the resolution that opts the county out of the governor's order.

Czapanskiy said that he had received 353 text messages from the public on the issue, and estimated around 80 percent of them were opposed to the governor's order.

Commissioner Gary Caspers said that more people had reached out to him through email, phone calls and text messages to discuss the issue than any other matter during his time on the commission. He said the comments he has received were evenly split on the topic.

Commissioner Bill Garrison said that the emails and phone calls he had received, along with public input provided during the meeting, suggests to him that people are in support of the governor's orders.

The board voted 3-0 to opt out of the mandate.

Cloud County, as of Friday morning, had 27 positive cases of COVID-19, with 22 of those being reported in the last two weeks. There were 470 negative tests and 70 tests pending.

County Health Officer Dorothy Breault and Cloud County Health Department administrator Brandi Bray spoke of the matter of wearing masks during the meeting.

Breault and Bray released a statement on Thursday night supporting the governor's mandate of wearing masks.

Bray said that wearing a mask is selfless act that may not be comfortable, and may be inconvenient, but is worth it if it can help save lives and keep businesses open and thriving.

“By people wearing masks and having it mandated, more people are going to comply. If we do not have it mandated, fewer people will comply. If it is just a strong recommendation, such as we've done, few people are going to comply,” Bray said, “Ultimately, we are putting our population at risk. You're putting your staff at risk.”

Breault said that wearing a face mask is one of the most effective ways of preventing the mask wearer from transmitting the virus to other people and that people can transmit the virus even when they are not having symptoms, which is why it is important for everyone to wear one.

“Me wearing (a mask) protects me a little bit, but it mostly protects those around me who may not be wearing a mask, may be wearing a mask incorrectly, or just to protect from those very few small amounts of particles that may end up escaping,” Breault said, “You have hired me as your county health officer to advise and make regulations and recommendations for our county to keep us safe, and I thank you for that. I spend hours reading over information from the experts — the epidemiologists, the infectious disease experts — on the best ways to help the health of the people in our community. I've been working my butt off to try to figure out the best ways for us to do this for our community and keep us safe, and I think (the governor's order) is it.”

(Information for this story was provided by Toby Nosker, KNCK News Director)