Mask resolution extended in Duncan after 3-2 vote

Feb. 25—Duncan City Council's regularly scheduled meeting flowed a little out of order on Tuesday night but ultimately saw the temporary mask resolution extended in city limits for another several weeks and other city business handled.

Mayor Ritchie Dennington was supposed to declare February as Black History and Heritage Month in Duncan at the beginning of the meeting, but the proclamation was left out of the packet of paperwork. Dennington said while staff and the proclamation were on the way, they would continue the meeting as planned and handled items one and two.

The first portion of the meeting focused on the consent agenda, specifically item C. Councilman Nick Fischer had a couple of questions concerning the item, which dealt with the purchase of police ammunition for a total price of $54,973.38 from GT Distributors through the state contract.

Fischer said he had some of his questions answered but ultimately asked to table the specific item on the consent agenda.

"I understand the police department is doing a very good job, Officer Downs has got some really good deals on ammunition here, but I have two other questions I need to contact him and speak with him on the telephone if I could so if we could please, table it," he said.

The board voted to table that specific item and then voted again to pass the rest of the consent agenda.

During the second item, councilors heard from City Manager Kim Meek on awarding a bid to Alexander and Son Construction, LLC for the Duncan Lake pavilion rehab project. The specific total, she said, came to $42,500.

Meek said bids were opened Feb. 16 and they only received one bid, but it included all labor and materials and a completion date of 60 days after approval, weather permitting.

The board approved the item before the proclamation arrived and Dennington redirected the meeting. The proclamation story can be found here or in the Thursday edition of The Banner.

After the proclamation, council turned their attention to gear for firefighters.

The specific agenda item called for the purchase of 41 sets of structural firefighting gear including coats and pants and 42 pairs of structural firefighting boots for the Duncan Fire Department.

Meek said the current gear had reached its frontline lifecycle of four years after its original purchase date in 2016 but could still be used as backup in reserve status until the 10 year mark.

"With this order, all members of the Duncan Fire Department will have new protective gear," Meek said. "The gear is custom made and fitted to each member and will be delivered in approximately four months."

The total of the order came to $121,591 out of the capital improvement account. Councilwoman Patty Wininger asked Meek if new firemen joined, if they would receive gear in-kind that's customized and Meek said yes and told her a specific line item existed in the operational budget for that purpose and the equipment would also be individualized.

Council then moved on to discuss the extension of the mask resolution, known as Resolution No. 1706, in Duncan which originally passed in late December 2020 and was set to expire at the end of February 2021. The resolution for face masks to be worn in indoor public places had a purpose of "slowing the spread of COVID-19."

City Attorney David Hammond said he had a resolution "that will extend it if you all vote that way."

At that time, Dennington opened the floor for comments, and none came from the public. However, Wininger reported to the council on her thoughts after speaking with health officials and others in the community.

She said after speaking with the district and county health administrator for the region, the local county health administrator, the director of the hospital COVID task force, the school board and the school superintendent, she knows they are working rapidly to deploy vaccines into community members who choose to take them, which has helped lower the numbers but deaths continue to climb. Ultimately, she said, they gave a recommendation to extend the resolution.

"We know our COVID numbers are down, our positivity numbers are down, there's less patients in the hospital, but we continue to have daily, almost daily COVID deaths in Stephens County," Wininger said. "We had another one that showed up today (Tuesday). So the recommendation is to continue the same things that we've been doing for a little while longer until we get vaccines to those that choose to take them. As you've seen, Gov. Stitt's order now has included teachers and staff in the school systems are working to do that. So the recommendation would be to take it out until perhaps the end of April, that gives another couple of months to buy us more time doing what we're continually doing now — social distancing, hand washing, and wearing the masks when at all possible when you can't social distance and do that — and takes us through the end of April. In December, we voted for two months and it expires at the end of this month and then the recommendation if you choose to do that would be to add another two months and then reevaluate in May. I do know that many things are considering trying to open up during the June and July timeframe and so that was the recommendation given to me by those sources of expertise."

Dennington reminded that "this was a resolution, not a mandate, and suggestions and 'should's' and so on, not forcing anyone to do anything."

Vice Mayor Lindsay Hayes said she struggles with the resolution because it is misleading.

"I guess I struggle with the resolution because like we said in the meeting before, it's confusing and it makes people feel like there is a mandate when there is not one," Hayes said. "And after we even had our meeting, people that were at this meeting — which is really surprising to me because it was made evidently clear it was not a mandate — people in this meeting went out and told businesses that it was a mandate and that it was required of them to enforce people to wear, their guests and their customers, wear masks inside of their business or face consequences and penalties, which all were not true. And it was because, to me, and to the business owners and apparently to the people that were even here, it was so confusing that it was misrepresented or it was purposely misrepresented in order to push an agenda that somebody wanted. (SIC)

"So I don't believe it's the right thing to do, it's confusing ... The CDC already has their guidelines and recommendations, I don't really see why we have to put one out ourselves," Hayes said. "It's not a mandate, it's confusing. It was even reported in papers as being a mandate. The Shopper, I believe ... printed a retraction, which was also really nice, but even in The Duncan Banner, it said that two of us voted for a mandate and three of us voted for a — voted against a mandate and three voted for a resolution, so even that was confusing."

The story that published on Dec. 21, 2020, in The Duncan Banner, titled "Mask resolution passes 3-2 in Duncan" included a sentence in the second paragraph with the word mandate. Online, the story now, following this meeting, has an editor's note located at the top of the story reading: "This story has been updated to correct an error in the second paragraph. A sentence previously published on Dec. 21, 2020, read as: 'Both Mayor Ritchie Dennington and Vice Mayor Lindsay Hayes voted against the mask mandate while council members Nick Fischer, Patty Wininger and Jennifer Smith voted for the resolution to be put in place.' The sentence has been updated to remove the word 'mandate' and replace it with the word 'measure' to ease any confusion about Duncan's mask resolution. The Banner regrets the error and is happy to set the record straight."

Ultimately, Hayes said she wasn't for the resolution and didn't want to extend it.

"People are going to continue to do as they see fit and I don't understand why," she said. "I think, on a basic level, we don't — it's not our business to be telling people what they have to do especially when it gets confusing and allows for people to be telling people what they should be doing by a mandate when it's not, so it's a little bit of a struggle for me (SIC)."

Then, Dennington said, "so what I'm hearing is we want to make a motion to extend for 60 days," and Wininger responded, "yes, sir, until the end of April."

Hayes questioned: "Where it will be reviewed again?" And Wininger said, "yes, that's what other councils do ... they review it again and if things are better, then some lift the resolution."

Hammond said the council could decide to let it expire or extend it.

Hayes said, "I think I made it clear, because the businesses were calling me, very confused with it, even when we made it so clear it wasn't a mandate."

Dennington said they're not changing anything other than extending it.

Wininger then said she wanted "to go on record that I didn't go out and tell people something contrary to what was in our resolution, so if that was done, I'm sorry who did that, but it certainly wasn't from me, and others, they take their personal action with how they deal with it."

Wininger made the motion to extend Resolution 1706 until April 30, 2021, and Councilwoman Jennifer Smith seconded the motion.

Wininger, Smith and Fischer voted to extend the resolution and Dennington and Hayes voted not to.

The measure passed 3-2.

In other news, the council:

—Approved purchase of two RTV-X 900 utility vehicles with dump beds and hydraulics for the parks department from Great Plains per state contract for a combined amount of $28,853.26. Meek told council the utility vehicles have curbed cutting attachments added to maintain the medians and city walks of the city parks. The purchase replaces "homemade edging attachments that have been used in the past" and will save time and man power when median edging.

The next Duncan City Council meeting is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, 2021, at the City Council Chambers located inside Duncan Police Department.