Grace Anderson tells Chiefland commissioners all of the city’s businesses should be required to post signs mandating or requesting customers to wear masks.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Wearing masks has been optional for Chiefland businesses since the COVID-19 outbreak started and that didn’t change Monday night at the city commission meeting.
Chiefland City Commissioners rejected resident Grace Anderson’s request for the board to require all businesses in Chiefland to post signs at the store entrance asking customers to wear masks.
Mayor Chris Jones, who owns a motorcycle shop, said he respected what Anderson was trying to do but he said every business operates differently with different clientele and all should be allowed to make their own decisions regarding the wearing of masks.
“If you’re going to get my customers in the bike shop to wear masks they’re going to laugh me out of the business because it’s hot in there; I’m not going to be walking around with a mask on, I’d be on the floor,” Jones said.
Commissioner Tim West opened the discussion by declaring his personal opposition to wearing masks.
“On the mask thing, it’s going to be a hard no for me. If the business wants to require us to wear a mask, that’s fine. I think there’s a freedom of choice involved with this,” West said. “Furthermore if the government made a requirement for it, I’d have to stand down on it.”
Anderson wrote the commission a July 29 letter asking the board to require every store to display a sign requesting or mandating the wearing of masks.
“Today I am writing you to ask the Chiefland Commission to require all businesses in Chiefland to display a sign on their front doors requiring or requesting that people to wear masks in their business. Also, that they require their employees to wear masks in their business,” Anderson said.
“If I knew everyone in a store was wearing masks, I would go there,” Anderson added. “Stores are losing money because people who are concerned about the lack of mask-wearing don’t want to go there. There are places I would like to go in, but don’t because I know it’s a risk.”
Jones asked Anderson if she was aware that the mask she was wearing at the meeting wasn’t effective in protecting her from COVID-19.
She said she knows it’s not perfect.
“But I’m simply stating a fact, essentially, it’s not doing anything to protect you from COVID,” Jones said.
“I wouldn’t say it’s not doing anything,” Anderson replied.
“That’s what the doctors are saying, that’s what the scientists are saying,” Jones replied.
Anderson responded that Sheriff Bobby McCallum and 16 of his employees have tested positive for COVID-19.
She cautioned the commission that if they continue to go without masks that in a year or two, a few of them would probably be lost.
“So deny, deny, deny, deny, but it’s going to hit you in the butt someday, I guarantee it,” Anderson said.
Commissioner Norman Weaver said he wears a mask in Winn Dixie, Wal-Mart, Walgreens, and CVS but at Beall’s he takes off his mask at the
door.
“What, are you ashamed that I will see you in a mask?” replied Anderson. “Is that why you take it off?”
“Ma’am I wear a mask,” Weaver responded. “You’re barking up the wrong tree talking to me. I wear a mask. Bark up some other tree.”
Commissioner Lewrissa Mainwaring said the issue was Anderson’s request for the board to adopt a policy requiring signs at local businesses asking or telling their customers to wear masks.
“I don’t see how we as a commission can say all businesses have to require that because they probably cannot provide a mask. They’re very expensive,” Mainwaring said. “They’re not going to be able to provide them. We’re not going to be able to force them to make it happen. Wal-Mart says it on the sign outside and when you go in they are not wearing them. They take them off they’re wearing them on their chin. I understand where you’re coming from, the seriousness of this COVID-19; people have different opinions on this. I don’t know how we can require anyone to wear masks.”
Anderson argued that the commission should make a statement in support of wearing masks or it couldn’t expect action on the part of stores. She said she may need to talk to the Chiefland Chamber.
“When I went to Home Depot in Gainesville, you have to wear a mask. It was wonderful walking around that store. Everybody had a mask on. All the employees had a mask on. Here I go at 7 a.m. to the grocery store with a list and get my stuff and get out,” she said.
Police Chief Scott Anderson said he has no intention of wearing a mask.
“If it’s my time the Lord will take me. If it’s not I’ll be fine,” he said. “It’s a person’s choice and that’s a freedom we have in this country. It’s your choice to wear one. It’s my choice not to.”
“It’s your choice to kill people, fine,” Grace Anderson replied.
“How can I kill you; you have a mask on?” Chief Anderson responded.
Then Grace Anderson suggested that if the “higher-ups” would set a better example, the people would be more likely to follow.
“Who are the higher-ups?” said Commissioner Rollin Hudson.
Anderson suggested that it starts in Washington D.C.
“So we got to do what Washington tells us to do all the time? Hudson said. “So if they told us to walk in a circle, would we all do that too?”
Jones respectfully thanked Anderson for her comments, but he said he has a different view on whether businesses should be told to post signs requiring customers to wear masks.
“I think anyone in here will respect a business that requires you to wear a mask. I don’t think it’s our right to impose that upon every business. Every business is structured different. You have different clientele,” Jones said.
————————–
City of Chiefland Regular Meeting August 10, 2020; Posted August 10, 2020
