Riley County Commission informally agrees to extend mask ordinance to May 16

Savannah Rattanavong, The Manhattan Mercury, Kan.
·2 min read

Mar. 15—Riley County commissioners on Monday informally agreed to the idea of extending the countywide mask mandate through the end of the school year.

But they also wanted to wait on the Manhattan City Commission's decision on the citywide mandate before finalizing an extension to May 16.

The current county health regulations, which expire April 1, require people to wear face masks in public spaces in Riley County in the areas outside Manhattan city limits. The city government has its own mask ordinance. The fate of the city ordinance is up in the air as city commissioners on Tuesday will decide whether to keep it in place until May 16 or indefinitely or allow it to expire on April 1.

County commissioners said they wanted to wait and see how the city commission votes to determine how they will need to adjust the language of the county order, but Julie Gibbs, Riley County Health Department director, and K-State's Chief of Staff Linda Cook, on behalf of the university, voiced their support for extending the mask mandate until at least May 16.

"We feel that it would be better to probably extend the mask mandate at least through the school year since we have about 16% of our population now vaccinated (and) we're still working on that," Gibbs said. "With that in mind, such a low percentage is vaccinated, and also that we just released a lot of (business) restrictions from the order. ... I think we should go ahead and extend that mask mandate at least through the school year."

Gibbs said it would be a good idea to review how the county is doing in terms of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations as that date approaches, and David Adams, EMS director, said emergency command center members are constantly keeping an eye on state, regional and local metrics.

Adams added that they have heard some of the big box stores on Pottawatomie County side of Manhattan have indicated they would likely keep a mask requirement in place regardless of a city ordinance.

County commission Chairman John Ford said he favored specifying an end date to allow the community and regional partners time to work around it or make their own adjustments.

"I'm less cynical (in thinking) we're going to take a slide backwards," Ford said. "We may see a little bit of an uptick, but of course I think that's going to be with the younger population so I don't think it's going to affect the severity, it's going to be an increase in the overall numbers."