PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. — The City of Prairie Village voted on Monday against a proposed ordinance to mandate wearing face masks or face covering in indoor public places.
Council members voted, 7-5, to deny the ordinance, which was proposed by Councilwoman Jori Nelson and would have required wearing a mask before entering a place of business that’s open to the public. Businesses also would have been required to have a sign giving notice of the requirement.
"My hope is it will be as common as ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service,’ but now it will be 'no mask,'” Nelson said during a Zoom city council meeting earlier in May.
It’s a proposal some people, including Paul Trainor, agreed with.
"I think it’s a good idea," Trainor said. "It’s a good idea to protect yourself as well as the people around you."
But there was concern over mandating wearing face coverings.
Prairie Village Police Chief Tim Schwartzkopf told the council it would be hard to enforce and will cause additional strain on their resources and confusion for residents.
"This will create more calls for service for us," Schwartzkopf said during that initial Zoom meeting. "And, quite frankly, we don’t have the capacity to respond."
Another resident, Angela Evangelidis, was indifferent on the proposal.
"I’m not going to force someone to wear that," she said, "and I’m going to stay distant. Who would not have a mask, I will choose to stay far away from them."
The penalty for not wearing a mask would have been an unclassified violation and the fine not more than $25.
