{"id":2457482,"date":"2020-04-21T14:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T20:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/city-of-aspen-considers-mandatory-facemask-public-health-order\/"},"modified":"2020-04-21T14:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-21T20:16:00","slug":"city-of-aspen-considers-mandatory-facemask-public-health-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/city-of-aspen-considers-mandatory-facemask-public-health-order\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Aspen considers mandatory facemask public health order"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Aspen officials are considering requiring everyone in city limits to wear a facemask to slow the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A majority of Aspen City Council members on Monday voiced support for Councilman Ward Hauenstein\u2019s suggestion that the city pass a mandatory facemask public health order, like <a id=\"N0xed0080N0xe59940:N0xed0080N0xe00578\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2020\/04\/20\/us\/states-that-require-masks-trnd\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">seven other states already have<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The majority of the <a id=\"N0xed0080N0xe599a0:N0xed0080N0xe00698\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/glenwood-springs-requires-residents-to-wear-face-coverings-for-essential-activities\/\">Glenwood Springs City Council voted earlier this month<\/a> to require face masks until at least April 26. The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority also this month made it mandatory for bus riders to wear face coverings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The city of Aspen\u2019s order would require people to wear a facemask in public where they cannot maintain a 6-foot social distance from others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/at-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Council members said the city first has to make sure there is adequate supply and there is a way to enforce the order.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI agree that there should be a mandatory mask order in place \u2026 it\u2019s not about wearing it all the time, for example if you\u2019re hiking by yourself, and things like that, but I can\u2019t support that mandatory mask order until we work out the details of supply,\u201d said Mayor Torre during a <a id=\"N0xed0080N0xe59a00:N0xed0080N0xe008d8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CityofAspen\/videos\/282449836088692\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">work session on Monday<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i>. \u201cI\u2019m going to support the conversation moving forward today, but I think we have some questions to get answered before we could say that a mandatory mask order should be put in place \u2026 if we can get the supplies in town, I\u2019m all for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">City Manager Sara Ott told the council the city is organizing a group of volunteers who are making masks, and municipal government employees are delivering them to essential businesses, so that they can be given to customers who don\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">She said the program is in its infancy and a more direct media campaign will be begin this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019re also purchasing a couple of items to sort of make sure that there\u2019s enough out there in circulation in the beginning, and we will be encouraging more crafters and hobbyists out there who have some spare time and want to sew to go for it,\u201d Ott said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Council member Skippy Mesirow suggested that facemasks could be given to law enforcement officers and they can give them to people who don\u2019t have one, and then explain the public health order to them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s not about writing you a ticket for something you couldn\u2019t help but it is about saying, \u2018Hey, this is required and here\u2019s a free mask for you, you\u2019ll be required to wear it next time,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI would support it where it benefits public health and we need to be ahead of the state and federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Councilwoman Rachel Richards said she feels comfortable only recommending people wear a facemask until an adequate supply is available for the masses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Councilwoman Ann Mullins concurred, saying that as a member of the Pitkin County Board of Public Health, she agreed with last week\u2019s decision that facemasks be only a recommendation because of the enforcement challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI\u2019m hoping that with the program that Sara outlined, that we will be able to provide masks to most people in town by having them available at essential businesses as soon as you walk in,\u201d she said. \u201cI would support recommending wearing a mask at this point until we find that they\u2019re available or we have some way to actually enforce.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\"><a href=\"mailto:Csackariason@aspentimestimes.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Csackariason@aspentimestimes.com<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/city-of-aspen-considers-mandatory-facemask-public-health-order\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aspen officials are considering requiring everyone in city limits to wear a facemask to slow the spread of COVID-19. A majority of Aspen City Council members on Monday voiced support for Councilman Ward Hauenstein\u2019s suggestion that the city pass a mandatory facemask public health order, like seven other states already have. The majority of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2457482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 01:56:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}