Fulton City Council agrees to draft mask ordinance
FULTON, Mo. (KMIZ)
Tuesday the Fulton City Council voted to begin drafting a mask ordinance in case COVID-19 cases spike.
However, in the previous city council meeting, Fulton Mayor Lowe Cannell recalled no city council members being in favor of drafting an ordinance.
"As of last week, when I asked the question if anyone was in favor of a mask ordinance, no one was," Cannell said.
The following week, Ward 2 council member Mary Rehklau said she wanted to know how long it would take to pass an ordinance if numbers go up quickly in the next few months.
As of Wednesday, July 29, Callaway County has 97 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 73 of which had recovered, and 23 active cases, according to the Callaway County Health Department website. One county resident has also died from coronavirus.
The county has added nine new cases of COVID-19 over the last week, four of which were confirmed within the last 24 hours, according to health department data.
City Clerk Courtney Crowson said the process of drafting an ordinance can take some time. She said the city should expect the draft to take at least a week, maybe more.
"I would give it a couple of weeks, but if you're going to have enforcement you're going to have a mechanism in place for that," Crowson said.
Ward 4 council member Bob Washington said there needs to be a plan in place for the city before cases get out of control.
"We don't just need to wait till something happens we need a plan ready to go, so ok if this triggers something, this is what we are going to do, it will be a couple days then vote on it and put it into action," he said.
Ward 1 councilman Ballard Simmons questioned what exact number of cases would trigger the city to put the mask ordinance into effect.
"Its hard to quantify exactly what the trigger point is but we need to be talking about it between the city and the county and some of the other cities," he said "Because I don't think we can go with a hard and fast number."
No decision was made at the meeting on what would trigger the ordinance or how the city would enforce it.
