City council to reconsider Shelter in Place, mask ordinance in special meeting

Updated on April 28, 2020City amends shelter-in-place, keeps mandate on masks

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The Guthrie city council will hold a special meeting on Monday morning to determine if they want to rescind an ordinance on their May 5th Shelter in Place and face mask mandate, to keep the original ordinance in place or any other possible action due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The council will have an opportunity to rescind the city ordinance and align themselves with the governor’s safer at place measure.

The videoconference meeting is set to begin at 10 a.m.

A majority of four votes of the council will be needed on any motion given. If an emergency clause (to take into effect immediately) is needed, it will take five yes votes.

On April 6, the council voted unanimously for citizens to shelter in place and to only leave their residence for essential activities or to operate essential business activities. In addition, citizens were mandated to wear a cloth face covering when going out in public.

The ordinance went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 6 and is to run through May 5.

If the ordinance is indeed rescinded, the Mayor’s March 16, 2020 State of Emergency Proclamation would remain in effect until 12:01 a.m., Tuesday, May 12, 2020 unless terminated earlier.

Related article: City of Guthrie issues Shelter in Place; face masks now mandatory

The governor outlined his Open Up and Recover Safely (OURS) Plan on Wednesday that includes a “Three-phase Approach to Open Oklahoma’s Economy.” Related article: Stitt lays out plan to reopen Oklahoma; City leaders await a future plan

The City of Guthrie would strongly recommend, if rescinded, individuals and local business continue to follow CDC (Center for Disease Control) recommendations on social distancing, wash hands with soap and water, avoid touching the face, disinfect frequently-used items and surfaces as much as possible, consider using face coverings while in public and when using mass transit and stay home and contact their doctor if they are feeling sick.

If citizens wish to speak in the public meeting, they will need to submit a letter prior to 9 a.m. on Monday.

Each Person submitting a public comments will need to submit their name, address along with their comment, identify the topic/subject of their comment, limit their comments to a total of 750 Words (roughly equivalent to a five minute speech), comments will be limited to City of Guthrie Residents and non-residents that either work for or operate a business in the City of Guthrie. The City Clerk or designee will read the public comments either at the start of the meeting, or at the beginning of the discussion of each agenda item if the comment(s) are germane to that particular agenda item. If there are multiple comments on any one topic, once it is obvious that the comments are overlapping or repeating themselves, the balance of the comments will be summarized.

The meeting will be carried live on Guthrie News Page Facebook.

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2 Comments on "City council to reconsider Shelter in Place, mask ordinance in special meeting"

  1. The council should never have enacted such drastic, communistic measures. All members who voted in favor of shutting down businesses resulting in economic devastation of some & mandatory masking in public should be removed from office immediately. This is probably the most blatantly ignorant and overreach of local government I have ever seen in Oklahoma and should never be accepted again by the people of Guthrie or any city for that matter.

  2. Kimberly, you’ve said it all very well. I haven’t shopped in Guthrie since the mandatory masking. What a blatant overreach of power from the city council. Do they not know that there are many, many of us that know how to use common sense in this matter? Personally, I don’t need someone telling me to not cough in their direction, to wash my hands, or to go out should I have a fever. MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME VERY WELL.

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