Keep the masks on.
That was the end result of the Monday night reevaluation of Indianola’s emergency proclamation. During the Board of Aldermen meeting, the vote was 3-2 to keep the mask mandate in place; however, there were a few other changes.
After discussing the current provisions of the city's emergency proclamation, Alderman Marvin Elder made the motion, Alderman Sam Brock seconded and they plus Alderman Ruben Woods voted yes. Aldermen Gary Fratesi and Darrell Simpson voted no.
Five provisions of the proclamation needed to be addressed: indoor/outdoor gatherings, retail business capacity, curfew, bars and restaurant restrictions and the mask mandate. "I would hope that at this point we will leave the face mask in place at least until our next meeting," Rosenthal said.
During the discussion, Brock mentioned reported recent dialogue from local merchants requesting that citizens not wear masks in their stores. He mentioned their concern about safety issues in light of last week’s fatal assault on a storeowner. Brock asked, "How will this affect us if we continue to say masks (are) to be worn.”
Attorney Kim Merchant replied, "If we have created restriction where people are required to wear masks in buildings, to operate otherwise would be a violation of that restriction, then we would have to work toward what enforcement would look like." She said the city is still operating under a state of emergency.
A brief discussion ensued with some aldermen voicing their opinions in favor of lifting the restricting and others against. However, Merchant stated that as long as an emergency proclamation exists citizens are required to follow that order.
Fratesi mentioned that the governor had lifted the statewide restriction, asked what the county leaders were doing and questioned how their decision would affect the city’s choice. "Cities still have the authority to create stricter restrictions," Merchant said. Fratesi then added that the mask mandate was not being enforced anyway.
Elder made a personal statement pledging his intent to continue to wear masks and follow CDC guidelines, including social distancing. "We are not out of the woods because we have a lot of people not taking the vaccination and you don't know who's telling the truth and who's lying," he said.
In addition to the decision to retain the mask mandate, the lawmakers also decided to increase the gathering capacity, when social distancing is not possible, from 10 indoors and 50 outdoors to 20 inside and 75 outside.
They also decided to increase business capacities to 75% instead of 50%. And the restriction on bars and restaurants specifies no capacity limits as long as tables can be spaced six feet apart and no more than 10 people per table, and the employees must continue to wear masks.
The city is also still under a 1 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., curfew.
In other business,
Although it wasn't on the agenda, the aldermen briefly discussed the problem of ATVs and four-wheelers on city streets, drag racing along some major thoroughfares and measures that could be taken to restrain both illegal activities. Interim Police Chief Earnest Gilson was charged with compiling a list of possible solutions and presenting it at the board's next meeting.
Also, Mike Slaughter of Slaughter and Associates, the firm hired by the city to revise its annexation plan, presented an update on the city’s request. And after a discussion that lasted more than 40 minutes, the aldermen requested some additional changes to the proposed plan.
Slaughter acknowledged that this was only phase one of the process, which includes assessing and evaluating the projected income to the city and said that after the new changes are made the city will hold a public meeting to get the citizens’ input before anything is finalized and a public hearing is set up. "Right now from a planning standpoint we want to get public input," Slaughter said.
Rosenthal said afterwards that phase two will consist of Slaughter providing cost analysis to the city based on the future.
In other business,
Two yes votes were enough to gain approval on a motion made after coming out of executive session because three of the aldermen abstained and it was ruled that the abstentions go with the majority.
Elder attempted to make the motion, but was initially preempted by an objection to leave a name out of the motion. However, when this reporter questioned him to repeat and clarify his statement, Elder said, “I said a motion to allow city attorney to write Mississippi Bar to clarify that the city did not direct Attorney Austin to file complaint on behalf of the City of Indianola on ministerial property."
The motion was seconded by Woods and he and Elder voted yes, while the other three abstained. Fratesi said his abstention was based on the fact that he did not want Austin's name included in the motion and Simpson voiced a similar concern.
Additionally, the city leaders approved a request to close an unspecified street and conduct a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new B.B. King Museum expansion, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday June 5.
The city lawmakers voted to increase the pay of Cemetery Director Charles McClatchy and cemetery worker Freddie Carter by one dollar per hour each, which makes their new hourly rate $15.83 and $10.78 per hour respectively. An additional motion was made to review the pay rate at budget time.
They also hired one new part-time police officer and promoted a part-time dispatcher to full-time, plus accepted the resignation of another officer.
No action was taken on a motion proposed by Fratesi to change the designation of several police cars from unmarked to marked. Gilson expressed his desire to leave the vehicles as is citing the advantages of having unmarked units.
They also approved a resolution adopting the approved District 3 Regional Hazard mitigation plan.
