by SARAH THOMACK
St. Joseph Post
After over an hour of public comment and discussion between city council members, the St. Joseph City Council approved continuing the mask mandate that was set to expire this week.
During the council’s meeting Tuesday night, councilmembers voted 5 to 3 to amend “Health and Sanitation” of the Code of Ordinances to adopt “COVID-19 pandemic regulations," effectively putting the current mask requirements in place indefinitely. The current mandate, in place since July, requires masks in any retail store of 10,000 square feet or more.
City Attorney Bryan Carter answered questions from the council and said the original declaration and emergency orders were drafted to address what started as a more short-term matter and as something that was changing in the way it needed to be implemented over time.
“As we have kind of settled to a standard way that it has been implemented and we’ve been at this certain level of 10,000 square foot retail locations, it’s been at that for approaching 60 days, it became something that looks a little more long-term in nature and that’s more appropriate for an ordinance.”