By WHITNEE ICE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph's mask mandate will be lifted, effective Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.
The City Council met Monday night to vote on whether or not to lift the mask mandate, which has been in place since September.
After some discussion and debate, the council voted 5-4 to end the mandate. This comes after the council voted 5-4 on Feb. 8 to extend the mandate by 60 days.
Councilmember Marty Novak brought this resolution to the council, saying he believes it's time to let people wear masks voluntarily.
"The whole purpose of the masking mandate was to prevent our health care institutions from being overwhelmed," Novak tells St. Joseph Post. "As of this weekend there was four COVID patients at Mosaic, zero in the ICU, and the positivity rate for the city was at 3.38%, for the Mosaic Health Care System it was in the twos."
Novak noted that businesses in town will still have the ability to enforce mask wearing in accordance with their policies.
Mayor Bill McMurray opposed the resolution to lift the mandate, saying the timing might be a little premature.
"If the numbers spike again, we're going to be in a really tough position here, what we're going to have to do so, I hope people will voluntarily continue to observe these risk management protocols and keep this thing down," the mayor said.
Novak says lifting the mandate is going to be a good for the community.
"It's kind of a light at the end of the tunnel," says Novak.
Those who voted in favor of lifting the mandate were council members Novak, Kent O'Dell, Gary Roach, Madison Davis and PJ Kovac.
Those who voted to keep the mandate in place were Mayor McMurray, and council members Brian Myers, Brenda Blessings and Russell Moore.
Elsewhere, Maryville City Council voted 4-1 Monday to end their mask mandate, effective 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.