KC Health Department shuts down U-Haul store after staff, patrons refuse to wear masks
The Kansas City Health Department closed down a metro U-Haul store after its workers and patrons refused to follow the mayor’s emergency order requiring face coverings be worn inside businesses.
The health department received numerous complaints about customers and staff refusing to wear masks inside the U-Haul at 11827 Blue Ridge Boulevard, city health officials said in a statement Wednesday.
As a result, the health department suspended the location’s certificate of occupancy. The suspension is in place “until further notice,” according to a health department statement.
The violation of Mayor Quinton Lucas’ mask order “creates an imminent menace to public health,” health officials wrote. Lucas’ order is in place in an effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
U-Haul has since submitted a comprehensive compliance plan on behalf of the store location, Aaron Krueger, President of U-Haul Company of Southern Kansas, said. The area he oversees includes the Kansas City location.
“We have taken steps internally to ensure that all current mandates are met here, and at all U-Haul moving and storage facilities,” Krueger said in a statement Thursday. “As an essential service provider, and a part of Kansas City’s critical infrastructure, our mission is to serve the communities in which we operate in the safest and most effective manner possible.”
Krueger added that while the interior of the building is closed until the suspension is lifted, U-Haul will continue to do business at the location’s outdoor lot.
As of Wednesday, the metro area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has recorded 26,385 total cases of COVID-19.
“We will be scheduling a meeting with U-Haul management to discuss a corrective action plan and compliance with the Mayor’s order,” the health department tweeted Wednesday.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 10:27 PM.
