City Council: Time to wear your masks

The Cordell City Council moved swiftly to enact a face mask ordinance during a special meeting Friday as COVID-19 numbers rise sharply in the city, county and across the state.

In the past month, numbers in Cordell are up 89 percent and 79 percent in Washita County. Statewide, numbers are up 34 percent and hospitalizations have increased 67 percent.

Those numbers came courtesy of Deborah Kifer, a Cordell Memorial Hospital administrator who implored the council to pass a mask mandate during the special meeting.

“We have to do everything we can to try to minimize all of our risk on this,” she said. “All the staff, they are just begging for people to do the very best they can.”

Though the ordinance passed, it wasn’t unanimous. The vote passed 5-3. James Newman, Buddy Holman and Vona Hicks opposed enacting the ordinance. The emergency clause passed 7-1, making the ordinance effective immediately. Holman was the dissenter in that vote.

The mask mandate is wideranging. It calls for people to wear masks at all indoor places, including but not limited to businesses, churches, schools, banks, restaurants, bars, athletic facilities and public “communal” outdoor areas.

The ordinance also contains a section that covers social or physical distancing, which calls for 6 feet of distance between people who are not part of the same household while in a public accommodation, education institution or public setting.

The city’s ordinance defines “face coverings” as a covering that fully covers a person’s nose and mouth. It includes cloth face masks, towels, gaiters, scarves and bandana as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control or the Oklahoma State Department of Health, and N95, KN 95, or other mask that would be appropriate for a healthcare setting, or a surgical mask.

There are exceptions to the mask ordinance, namely people who fall into the CDC’s guidance for those who should not wear face coverings due to a medical or mental health condition, or developmental disability. Those exempt should consider the use of a face shield, provided that said shield wraps around the sides of the wear’s face and extends below the chin, according to the ordinance.

Kifer told the council that the pandemic is reaching critical mass here.

“We have absolutely been disaster planning up there,” she said. “I’ve spent all week, either in critical care with patients in your community, or I’m on the phone getting ventilators for your community, for us. That’s how critical it is. You do not have an ICU in this hospital, but I’m telling you right now, for the last three weeks, we are functioning in critical-care mode.”

Kifer has 45 years of experience, half of that in intensive care, she said.

A person can have a simple chill, then a fever in the afternoon, Kifer said. That person is thinking he has a little head cold, but all of sudden his chest is hurting and he’s short of breath. A trip to the ER, a positive COVID-19 test, and an admission to the hospital follows.

“Things are still looking OK, then like that,” she said, snapping her fingers, “you’re down. Just like that. That’s exactly what’s going on. Exactly.”

The hospital is feeling the effects of the COVID-19 surge.

“I can just tell you, you need to pray,” Kifer said. “I don’t know if I can keep all the staff there. They are just as scared as anyone else. That’s why they are letting you know.”

After passing the ordinance, the council discussion turned to enforcement.

“As a community, are we going to enforce this ordinance, or we just going to highly suggest it?” Hicks asked.

“We’re going to have to be suggestive, and if that doesn’t work, we’re going to have to enforce it,” mayor Jerry Beech said.

Police chief Brandon Rogers said it will be hard for his department to enforce this mandate.

“I have no idea” how we’ll enforce it, he said. “We’re busy doing other calls and everything else. It’s crazy for us, too.”

The council needs to give a more direct approach as to how proceed, Hicks said.

“There’s a big open area here that we haven’t addressed as council,” she said. “We just passed an ordinance, but we don’t have clear guidance on how we want to enforce that.”

In some cities, Beech said, they basically go to every store and hand them the ordinance and say this is what has been implemented by council.

“Please follow it, if not, there are some ramifications,” Beech said. “At least they’d know what it is.”

Rogers spent time this week handing businesses a flier to post and a copy of the ordinance.

If a business wants to enforce this mandate, this gives them right to refuse service,” city attorney Johnny Beech said. “If they don’t want to, then there’s not a whole lot you can do about it.”

Hicks asked if there is a penalty associated with the mandate.

“If you don’t wear a mask, you can be charged with A-B-C-D-E-F-G, and A-B-C-D-E-F-G is provided for in the ordinance,” Johnny Beech said. “Like disturbing the peace, for example.”

At least two council members have contracted COVID-19.

“The comments made (during the October council meeting) that adults can make their own decision, while apparently the adults aren’t making the decision because the numbers are climbing,” said Steve McLaughlin. “I will tell you this, I got it from someone I trusted.”

As an example McLaughlin pointed to his fellow council members.

“I can’t trust Earlene (Smith), Earlene can’t trust Vona. We can’t trust each other. Because I got it from someone I thought was safe,” he said. “Every chance there is to stop it or slow it down, guys we are crazy if don’t.”

Councilwoman Cheryl Wedel also tested positive. In a follow-up interview after the council meeting, Wedel told the Beacon that she was at the hospital about three weeks ago.

“They were not feeling that stress they are now,” she said. “That is how tremendously the picture of the whole situation for them changed almost overnight. I went in because I had a fever, I tested positive, there wasn’t this sense of ‘What are we going to do. Are we going to be able to take care of her’ or anything like that. I had no symptoms.”

Thankfully, she said, they didn’t have a hospital full of patients at the time. Now they do.

“They are fighting to find space for people who need it,” she said. “It’s scary. It really is.”

The decision to pass the mask mandate was difficult for the council, she said.

“You really do hate to pass an ordinance that makes people feel you are intruding on their rights to be able to make their own decisions,” she said.

But when you have a hospital and doctors in this area begging you to try and help them level the curve out by having something in place like that, she said, you just feel compelled to do it.

Wedel won’t criticize or point fingers at anyone who makes a decision to not wear a mask, nor will she criticize or point fingers at anyone who chooses to wear a mask.

“I’m just hoping that people will take the time to make the decision for themselves and not try to make choices for others,” she said.

Basically, for Wedel, she sees the decision as a way to support our hospital, doctors and our emergency responders in the job that they have to do.

“They are in a tough spot. They really are,” she said. “This is what they have found that helps them the most to level it out. I want to support them.”

Council members aren’t immune to the criticism they receive on social media or through calls they receive, she said.

“This is a very difficult time, and there’s a lot of very, very strong feelings about masks, whether you should wear them or not,” she said.

When residents make their choice, don’t condemn them and don’t try and make someone feel guilty for the choice they made, she said.

“We’re here to try to help each other and do the best we can,” she said.