Greeley City Council votes to approve a resolution supporting masks

By Kelly Ragan

On Tuesday, Greeley city councilmembers made their stance clear on masks: wear them.

Council Tuesday voted 5-2 to approve a resolution declaring its support and encouragement of mask wearing. The move goes against the philosophy of the Weld County Commissioners, who still won’t tell residents to wear a mask in official communications. 

Councilmembers Kristin Zasada and Ed Clark voted no. 

“I don’t have any problem with the wording or even the message itself, but at this point, nine months in, I think it’s been said many, many, many times very loudly to wear a mask,” Zasada said. “My concern is this is very redundant,  and I’m not sure how much of an impact it will have.” 

Councilmember Tommy Butler said if the resolution convinced even one more person to wear a mask, it would be worth it. Councilmember Michael Fitzsimmons said he was concerned the resolution didn’t do enough to address other issues, like handwashing and gathering in large groups. 

“I went by a church on Sunday and their parking lot was completely full, and no one was wearing masks,” Fitzsimmons said. 

Mayor John Gates said he favors limited government but would support the resolution. 

“I’m concerned our numbers are skyrocketing,” Gates said. “I support it because I think we need to do our part to trim the numbers.”

As of Wednesday, Weld had a 16.02% positivity rate. The county reported a total of 118 deaths since March, with 15 deaths since Nov. 1.

Greeley-Evans School District 6 announced Nov. 12 it would return to remote learning due to community spread, with the hope of returning to the classroom in January. 

“It is with great disappointment and a very heavy heart that I announce that all Greeley-Evans District 6 schools, including charter schools, must move to remote learning beginning next week through the Winter Break,” Superintendent Deirdre Pilch wrote in a letter to parents. “The COVID-19 positivity rate in Weld County now exceeds 15 percent, and the number of positive cases and hospitalizations in Weld County, including Greeley and Evans, continues to increase at an alarming rate.”

According to the state, Weld is still at level yellow on the COVID dial, although the city took restrictions one level higher. 

“We want to be proactive. We weren’t going to wait for the county or state to do anything,” said Dan Frazen, Greeley’s Emergency Manager at a previous city council meeting. “We still don’t know if they will. As you know, the county and the state differ on their perspective on this.” 

The city still only has control over its own buildings and employees – the designation change does not impact private businesses. The county is the governing body that has the authority to impact private businesses. 

The state announced it would move several counties up to level red on Friday, including: 

• Adams 

• Arapahoe 

• Boulder 

• Broomfield 

• Clear Creek 

• Denver

• Douglas 

• Jefferson

• La Plata

• Logan 

• Mesa 

• Morgan

• Routt

• Summit

• Washington

The state also announced these counties would be moved to level orange: 

• Costilla 

• Custer 

• Lake 

• Montezuma 

• Pitkin 

• San Juan 

Weld is noticeably absent from that list, as the state has yet to announce plans to change Weld’s status, despite the fact that Weld’s indicators are worse than several other counties, such as Boulder, that were moved to red. 

The NoCo Optimist reached out to Gov. Jared Polis to see why the state hadn’t moved Weld to red or even orange. 

In a statement, Polis spokesperson Conor Cahill said: 

“For Colorado to get through this pandemic and come out stronger and more resilient, we all need to do our part, that means local, state, and federal governments along with people at home.  We created the dial system because this virus is impacting communities in a different way, what is happening in Denver county is different than Jackson county. It’s important to remember that local jurisdictions have always had the ability to enact more restrictive policies than those outlined in the dial and we need to trust that they will do what to protect the health and safety of their residents.  However, if there comes a time where we could lose lives due to lack of medical capacity the Governor will not hesitate to take statewide action.”

City councilmembers also voted to approve the COVID-19 disaster declaration, first established in March, through January 2021.