Edmond City Council Lifts Mask Mandate

The Edmond City Council declined to extend the city’s mask mandate during its regular meeting Monday night, choosing instead to allow it to expire at midnight.

The mandate was enacted last summer and subsequently renewed at each resulting meeting. It had most recently been extended through Monday. After the council discussed the mandate, no one moved to vote on another extension.

Edmond Emergency Management Director Matt Stillwell briefed the council on the current situation. He said Oklahoma County is still listed as “orange” on the hotspot map, but most numbers are steadily improving.

“There are some indicators out there that we’re still on a downward trend,” Stillwell said. “I think that’s good news, but that being said, we know it was just spring break, so that’s an issue… (The Health Department is) looking for new case number spring break information to be available two weeks from now. They are concerned about these various strains, and again, they don’t have any hard data to show how that’s entered into the state of Oklahoma, but they certainly believe it’s coming our way, and that could have an impact on increasing cases.”

Five citizens spoke to the council before the vote. One, who said she works at the OU Health Science Center, asked the council to keep the mandate in place. The rest all asked for the mandate to be lifted, citing freedom and liberty.

The council did extend the declaration of emergency though April 27, so residents are still encouraged to wear masks and be socially distant.

Beyond the discussions about masks, the council took time to recognize Dean Sherrick for 45 years of service with Edmond Electric. The council also declared March 22-27 as Arbor Week and April as Autism Month.