Heated debates on COVID mask mandates continue to rage in Branson, other small cities
The last time the members of the Branson Board of Aldermen met, they sat for hours and listened as speakers equated a mask mandate to the Holocaust, a Nazi regime and an erosion of personal rights.
After 8 1/2 hours, the board adjourned without voting. On Tuesday, they’ll take up the issue again, and this time a vote is expected.
Despite growing COVID-19 numbers and President Donald Trump’s recent endorsement of masks — though he doesn’t favor a nationwide mandate and still rarely wears one in public — there’s no indication that attitudes have shifted in the southwest Missouri tourist town.
“I’m really pleased to see the president say what he did,” said Dirk Myers, who owns a photography business in Branson and spoke against the ordinance at the last meeting. But “I don’t think it changes my opinion. ... I’m not against masks and never was. I’m against the government mandating them. We can do the right thing without the government telling us that we need to.”
A new poll, from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that three out of four Americans favored requiring people to wear face coverings.
Since Branson’s first mask discussion, other small towns and rural counties — from Forsyth and Nixa in southwest Missouri to Rice County in Kansas and Belton in the Kansas city area — have had the same debate and voted on the same issue.
Boards and commissions have heard hours of fiery public comment, with more people voicing outrage against masks then standing up for them. City and county leaders have been blasted on social media and at meetings, told that depending on how they vote, there may be an effort to oust them at the next election.
And in one rural central Kansas county, a day after a commissioner voted for a mandate — and the measure passed — she had second thoughts.
“I have heard from many citizens who strongly object to the vote I cast yesterday regarding masks,” Rice County Commissioner Deberah Wiens wrote on her Facebook page Tuesday. “I have responded to many with my reasoning at the time and the hope that it would make things better. Upon reflection and review of some statistics, and the fact that we made that decision hastily, we are revisiting it later today.”
After the new vote, the order was rescinded and Wiens wrote: “Ultimately, I felt that that kind of decision is best made by the cities where public buildings are, not by the county.”
By Friday, her posts related to the mask ordinance and votes had been removed from her Facebook page.
Just outside of Kansas City on Tuesday, two Belton city council members implored the body to adopt a mask mandate for the largest city in Cass County.
“The only tactic we’ve yet to try is a citywide mask ordinance. And I’m only asking for four weeks,” said council member Stephanie Davidson, who cited a recent spike in local coronavirus cases. “In the end, if it doesn’t work, we can at least say that we tried everything.”
Council member and Mayor Pro Tem Lorrie Peek said voluntarily asking people to wear masks in Belton was “not working.”
The proposed ordinance failed on a 6-3 vote. Mayor Jeff Davis voted in favor of it, but acknowledged he didn’t “like the oversight of the government to tell people what they have to do.”
“I’m proud of our businesses that are doing it on their own and doing it for the right reasons,” he said.
In Forsyth, a town of 2,500 people in the same county as Branson, city council members voted unanimously last Monday night for a mask mandate that went into effect Wednesday morning. Many area residents who were happy with the vote praised council members on the city’s Facebook page. Others wrote their outrage.
“This will limit and nearly eliminate my shopping/doing business in Forsyth,” wrote Casey Alvarez, who owns a small business in the county. “I do not believe government should have this much say over the day-to-day business of citizens.”
North of Branson, the Nixa Board of Aldermen voted the same night against a mask ordinance. The unanimous vote came after a five-hour meeting where dozens of people gave their opinions.
“...Thank you for voting with the majority and allowing us to make responsible decisions ourselves,” Bridget Reilly Bidinger said on the city’s Facebook page. “Proud of you all!!!”
Bonnie Taylor Schooler, though, was disappointed after the board voted down the ordinance.
“I am concerned that those who don’t want to mask will come to Nixa and Ozark to shop,” she wrote on Facebook, “which will increase our risk as a county.”
Health officials in Branson know the tension all too well. No one from the Taney County Health Department spoke at the last board meeting. And as of Wednesday, no one had been asked to speak at the upcoming one, either.
“I think it’s a very complicated issue, and there are certainly very divided feelings on it,” said Lisa Marshall, the county health director, who said she’s communicated with Branson leaders regularly for several months about the virus. “Unfortunately we have a community that very much likes to make their own decisions. At this moment, many of our community members feel that they can make informed and educated decisions on keeping themselves and their families safe.
“We just continue to educate and share the best information that we have.”
Early this month, coronavirus cases in Taney County hit triple digits. Since then, cases have continued to climb. By Sunday, the state had reported 237 cases in the county.
A month ago, on June 26, the county had just 43 cases.
Those numbers don’t take into account the tourists who go to the Branson area and test positive for the virus once they return home. Their cases are counted in their home county and state.
The state notifies the health department of new cases, but the department’s staff of 37 can’t keep up with tracking them.
“We’re maxed out on capacity,” Marshall said. “We simply are getting such an influx of cases, that we can not get to them all as quickly as the state is sending them to us. We are working nights, we are working weekends. ... We are just working as fast as we can.”
The health department recently restructured the organization to allow most of the staff to work COVID cases. And still it’s not enough.
A recent study — conducted by H2R Market Research — gave some insight to the attitudes of potential visitors by surveying 562 past travelers to the Branson area.
“We continue to see that those most willing to travel are among the ones least likely to wear masks,” the study found, “and those most likely to wear masks are the ones least likely to travel. This creates quite a conundrum.”
The travelers said they were most comfortable visiting parks and outdoor attractions. They also report feeling safer visiting restaurants and bars than visiting hotels, resorts, vacation rental homes and shopping centers.
When asked about what made them nervous about future travel, respondents said they were most concerned about destinations not taking proper safety precautions. They rated potential closures of restaurant dining rooms as their second highest concern.
In Branson, many say the issue has just as much to do with the economy as it does with public health.
Clay Cooper, a popular country music performer, wrote to aldermen petitioning them not to enforce mask wearing. The Clay Cooper Theatre doesn’t require masks. Showgoers aren’t automatically spread apart, but visitors can choose to sit in a social-distance section of the auditorium.
Across the street, the Titanic Museum Attraction is requiring masks, limiting crowds and requiring reservations. It’s a similar story for Dolly Parton’s Stampede down the strip, where crowds are spaced apart and guests are required to wear face coverings when moving inside the building.
Sheila Dutton, CEO of the three-generation family music act The Duttons, said most visitors are wearing face coverings, even though the venue isn’t requiring it. She prefers to educate and strongly recommend masks rather than mandate them.
Her family has traveled to Colorado and Wyoming in recent weeks, where they saw many more people wearing masks than they see in Branson. Dutton said people seem to take the issue more seriously once they know someone who has been infected with COVID-19.
The theater is keeping guests six feet apart, limiting lines in the lobby and escorting showgoers in and out in small groups. Those safety measures aren’t just about keeping people safe. Like mask wearing, they help to keep businesses open, she said, and visitors coming into Branson.
While some local attractions are “packing people in,” she said most attractions are working to keep crowds distanced and encouraging masks.
“We are pretty united in that we want to recommend people wear masks so people feel comfortable,” she said. “It’s a lot easier for somebody who is worried and concerned if they’re next to someone who has a mask on.”
