Logan City Council members clarify mask resolution

Members of the Logan City Council voted Tuesday to allow the city's compulsory mask mandate to expire on Aug. 30, replacing it with a resolution that encourages voluntary community cooperation.

LOGAN – While Salt Lake and Grand counties this week extended their emergency orders making face coverings mandatory until Dec. 31, the city of Logan has carefully avoided taking a similar step.

In a delicate hair-splitting act, the Logan City Council approved a resolution Tuesday that strongly encourages residents and visitors to wear masks in public, but stopped short of being a legally enforceable mandate.

Following a public hearing on the mask mandate during their regular bi-weekly meeting on Aug. 18, the members of the city council were expected to vote on a request from Mayor Holly Daines to extend her Aug. 1 emergency declaration and its mask mandate until Dec. 31.

Instead, the council members approved a carefully worded compromise resolution.

Under the resolution passed Tuesday, any individual within the city of Logan age 5 or older who is “medically or psychologically able to tolerate a face covering shall be required to wear a mask of material and fit consistent with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” That recommendation will apply whenever consistent social distancing of at least six feet is not possible, reasonable or prudent.

“It is the intention of that resolution for people to take personal responsibility to follow public health guidelines, protect lives and improve societal well-being …” according to Amy Z. Anderson, the council chairperson. “The resolution passed by the Logan City Council does require people to wear masks

“The resolution does not carry with it, however, the enforcement provision that accompanies the current state of emergency.”

With Gov. Gary Herbert’s permission, Daines imposed the city’s original mask mandate in late July. Although the mayor pledged that the mask mandate would not be enforced punitively, the text of her executive order nevertheless stated that “repeat or egregious violations” of that order could result in either administrative or criminal citations.

While acknowledging that the council’s action Tuesday resulted in some public confusion, council member Jess Bradfield emphasized that the city council’s intent was that their resolution be viewed as falling mid-way between a purely aspirational proclamation and a legally binding ordinance.

During a Wednesday broadcast interview on KVNU’s For the People program, Logan’s mayor had a much less nuanced view of the resolution passed the previous evening.

I’m operating under the premise that masks are required by the City Council until Oct. 15,” Daines said.

“We passed a resolution — as opposed to an ordinance — requesting and directing mask wearing among Logan residents,” Bradfield explained. “But we are not mandating (mask wearing) by law. The state of emergency and legal mandate will be lifted Aug. 30 and replaced with the council’s resolution on Aug. 31.

We ask residents to care for each other, show compassion for the deeply held beliefs of those around us and to wear a mask whenever social distancing is not possible,” he added. “Our combined actions will have a magnifying effect if we will practice all three of those points, instead of any singular solution.”

Rather than turning local lawmen into “the mask police,” Bradfield said that the council resolution relies on community education to achieve its goals.

The text of Aug. 18 resolution reads: “… A campaign to spread awareness and scientific research pertaining to mitigation techniques, including masks, shall immediately be implemented by the city of Logan in coordination with designated representatives of the municipal Council.”

Bradfield noted that the council’s resolution does not supersede any mask wearing requirements posted by businesses in compliance with state or federal guidelines.

Anderson agreed that a business owner who has posted a requirement to wear masks could still request the assistance of law enforcement personnel if a customer’s behavior in refusing to wear a mask rises to the level of trespassing, public nuisance or any other civil offense.

“Yes, wearing a mask is not always comfortable,” Anderson admitted. “They can be hot. They make it harder to hear someone. They limit non-verbal communication. They hide a smile.

“But masks also help to keep my neighbors, my clients and my family safer. I will wear a mask for them and truly hope that others in our community will look to other’s interests as well.

“In short,” she concluded, “we are saying to our community that you should wear a mask, but the city of Logan will not enforce penalties should you choose otherwise.”

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10 Comments

  • Free Bird August 20, 2020 at 6:24 pm Reply

    Listening to dictator daines, it reminds me of the song by Led Zepplin, “Living In The Past!”
    Businesses have the right to ask customers to wear masks, on the other hand I also have the choice not to shop there. I have found online shopping very convenient, and in most cases much cheaper.

  • The Fox August 20, 2020 at 10:26 pm Reply

    I still have yet to see any solid evidence that masks prevent any speading of viruses. I see lots of studies showing that their affect on viral contagions is negligible at best but nothing the other way. I even read one study that cloth coverings could possibly lower your immune system. I fail to see how lowering my immune systems ability to fight disease helps any of my neighbors or friends.

    • ArthurKChristopher August 21, 2020 at 9:20 am Reply

      Do you really believe your Googling skills are worth more than the 30 billion dollars per year the NIH devotes to medical research?

      • ArthurKChristopher August 21, 2020 at 10:03 am Reply

        For those of you who believe masks lower your immune system or poison you with your own carbon dioxide, this is a video of a doctor verifying oxygen levels as he uses 6 different types of masks:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5npQivAmcE

  • AS August 21, 2020 at 4:35 am Reply

    Here is a video showing numerous types of masks NOT WORKING.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_iQM5x9wF8

    • ArthurKChristopher August 21, 2020 at 9:36 am Reply

      You watch a video with shoddy evidence posted by a conspiracy theorist with poor grammar, who types in all-caps and you think they’re a genius.

      You have all the information in the world at your fingertips and you chose to post that?

  • ArthurKChristopher August 21, 2020 at 9:54 am Reply

    It’s not an exciting conspiracy theory, but this is a video on the efficacy of masks posted by Nebraska Medical Center using research first published in May 2020 by The New England Journal of Medicine:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbAzUUtqbiU

    • Lex August 21, 2020 at 9:17 pm Reply

      Aurther, After watching this video and the one suggested by AS, I would vote AS’s video as a much more reliant than yours. Yours was just plain stupid!!

  • AP August 21, 2020 at 12:38 pm Reply

    Mask effectiveness had already been studied long before COVID and do you know what had already been found from this previously vetted research? Only immuno-compromised, the ill and healthcare workers should wear masks. NOT the general public!

    Mask wearing by the general public is considered more dangerous than not wearing masks due to the lack of proper mask wearing knowledge and lazy mask hygiene. Pay special attention and you will see time and time again where people do not use masks properly. Masks sitting under noses/chins, masks hanging from rear view mirrors/ears, masks being reused, touching the mask itself, using the mask to itch face or pick noses, masks not being changed immediately when moist (every 45min-1hour), etc…. These are dangerous practice that will ultimately increase the spread of COVID AND many other bacteriae and viruses.

    Why the media has pushed new and false mask positive message and over-reaction is quite a mystery.

    Please look at these links if you are asking this same question!

    https://nypost.com/2020/04/24/driver-crashes-car-after-passing-out-from-wearing-n95-mask/

     https://alachuachronicle.com/harold-saive-fask-mask-mandate-can-damage-the-immune-system/

    https://youtu.be/ciHa3-0-kBc

    https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1435/rr-40

    https://themodelhealthshow.com/maskfacts

    https://youtu.be/YgP_Au5RZVw

    “Wearing face masks is a constant reminder that we should fear this invisible enemy or “monster” as some politicians have called it- There is no doubt that wearing a mask reinforces the worry and fear about COVID-19. Even being in public mask-less and seeing that most people are wearing masks leaves one with a sense of angst. Fear, worry and anxiety are powerful immune suppressing emotions. This is another factor relating to the immunosuppressive effects of face masks.” This is a link to a section of a 2007 book titled, Cytokines: Stress and Immunity– Second Edition 2007. You can read Chapter 2 titled Worried to Death? Worry, and Immune Dysregulation in Health and HIV. Interestingly, HIV is a viral infection as is SARS-C0V-2 (COVID-19).

    “Wearing a face mask can increase your risk of infections- The last point discussed the drop of oxygen levels after wearing a mask. A drop in oxygen levels (hypoxia), is associated with an impairment in immunity. Studies have shown that hypoxia can inhibit the type of main immune cells used to fight viral infections called the CD4+ T-lymphocyte. This occurs because the hypoxia increases the level of a compound called hypoxia inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), which inhibits T-lymphocytes and stimulates a powerful immune inhibitor cell called the T-regs. This sets the stage for contracting any infection, including COVID-19 and making the consequences of that infection much graver. In essence, your mask may very well put you at an increased risk of infections and if so, having a much worse outcome. In addition, reduced oxygenation can accelerate cancer growth.“ (1. Shehade H et al. Cutting edge: Hypoxia-Inducible Factor-1 negatively regulates Th1 function.

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