KOOTENAI COUNTY, Idaho — In a 4-2 vote, the Panhandle Health District Board of Directors passed a mask mandate for Kootenai County on Thursday that goes into effect immediately.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the PHD building to voice their opinions on the new mask mandate. However, only about three dozen were allowed inside during the hearing.
The hearing was relatively calm with the exception of several outbursts from community members.
Dr. Richard McLandress, who has been on the PHD board for 30 years, said this is not the first time the board has had to address controversial topics where there have been potential threats made over what they may decide.
But it has not been anywhere near this extent, according to McLandress. He said the board expected the reaction they got after voting to mandate masks in Kootenai County, but his primary concern was hearing the citizen's perspective.
"The concern is that we wanted to make sure we heard various opinions. there's a large body of our demographic that believes in liberty, personal liberty, and self-determination rules," McLandress said. "They were feeling that mandating anything is infringing upon their liberties. We wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to let them voice their concerns so the board of health can understand the broader details of their concerns."
McLandress said the mask mandate tackles two issues facing the county: health and liberty.
"This is combined issues, certainly this is a health issue. We are surging, we have a significant increase in cases and hospitalizations," McLandress said. "Masking has shown through the research to reduce transmission, so to me, this is a medical issue. We are in a crisis and we need to stem the unusual increase in numbers and cases that we are seeing."
Another priority of the board is to ensure the public understands why the mask mandate is going into effect, according to McLandress.
Although the meeting was tense, McLandress said he was not concerned about his personal safety.
"As I left I was escorted by one of the members of the SWAT team but I felt no direct engagement from any of the people who were outside, obviously opposed to what we decided," McLandress said. "But I felt no physical endangerment. I was happy to have someone escort me, I was thankful for that."
McLandress said the other objective with the mandate was to offer direction to the local school districts and to make faculty aware that students must be masked when they can't be physically distanced.
He is also aware of the Kootenai County Sheriff saying enforcing this mandate is very low on his priority list, as giving citations to every violation is not realistic.
The mayor of Couer d' Alene promised to try to enforce it by watching situations that may put people at risk, according to McLandress.
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