Granbury Leaders Urge Residents to Wear Face Masks Before Mandate

During the City Council meeting on the safety and legality of Granbury’s Fourth of July celebration, one item dominated the conversation: cloth face masks.

There has been a lot of controversy regarding masks lately. The CDC recommends wearing a cloth mask outside the home to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, but many Americans have resisted this recommendation, citing individual liberty as a reason not to wear one.

Hood County Public Health Authority Dr. David Blocker said SARS Coronavirus has an asymptomatic period of 24-48 hours before the patient starts showing defining symptoms, and that is when they are most likely to spread the virus.

“In my mind as a physician who’s done this for over 20 years and as your local health authority, that’s the primary reason to wear a mask,” Blocker said. “If I have been exposed and I have not yet developed symptoms and I’m not aware of that yet, this provides you some protection from me if I have to be close to you, if I have to be within 6-10 feet.”

Mike Scott, president of the Granbury Chamber of Commerce and retired veteran said not wearing masks was bad for business because it was scaring tourists away.

"I lost approximately six years of my children’s lives being deployed," Scott said. "I spent a year in Vietnam, I spent a year in the Persian Gulf, so I’m telling you-- don’t tell me about your individual rights. Y’know sometimes, to have freedom, we have to look at the greater good and we have to look at the rights of everyone."

After the shut down, Scott raised $120,000 for the Chamber to give to local businesses.

Place 5 City Council Member Tony Mobly said he was amazed at how much power the mask had to offend people in the community when it was supposed to be worn to help protect others-- especially the more vulnerable people in our society-- from getting sick.

“It’s a courtesy,” Mobly said. “In Granbury Texas, we are known for being one of the friendliest towns around, and yet this is what divides us? Are you kidding me?”

Place 4 City Council Member Trish Reiner also lamented the animosity in the community over whether or not to follow recommendations from the CDC.

“We have a completely polarized community right now,” Reiner said. “Somebody will sit on my left and say we need to mandate, we need to shut down, we need to mandate masks, and then on the other side we have those folks who think we need to open everything up and mandate nothing.”

County Judge Ron Massingill said he hoped people would wear a mask to stop the spread of the virus, because if there were too many cases, the county would be forced to shut down again.

“This shouldn’t be me against you,” Massingill said. “It should be all of us working together to help out everybody. We’ve got a lot of children that are the children of simple parents that are riding on us keeping their businesses open.”

Reiner said she believed the city could find a balance that allowed businesses to stay open, but didn’t risk the lives of older and immunocompromised people in the process.

“What that looks like?” Reiner said, “I don’t know. But maybe it is this little piece of material that’s sitting in front of all of us on the table.”

The little pieces of material she referred to were the face masks that city council members talked about and held up, but didn’t wear at the meeting. Reiner said she wears her mask when she goes to nursing homes to drop off supplies or when she will be within six feet of people who are over age 65.

Place 2 Council Member Eddie Rodriquez said he trusted individuals and businesses to make responsible decisions, and he did not want to force anyone to wear a mask.

“I think people just need to take precautions,” Rodriquez said. “If you feel comfortable wearing a mask, put the mask on. If you feel comfortable not wearing a mask, I think that’s their prerogative. I think we should all respect people’s view on the mask, whether they want to wear it or not wear it.”

Mayor Nin Hulett said if cases continued to rise, Abbott would probably mandate masks whether they liked it or not, to avoid ordering another shut down.

“Try it out,” Hulett said. “Get ready. That thing right there is not hard to do. It’s not hard to wear a mask and protect other folks.”

Hulett was right about the governor. Abbott released a mandate Thursday that anyone over the age of ten, in a county with more than 20 active cases, must wear a mask in public spaces.

At the time of the meeting, leaders were urging residents to wear the mask, but did not put a mandate in place. They said they did not wish to enforce any mandates, but hoped instead Granbury residents would choose to wear the mask on their own accord.

Blocker advised washing your cloth mask after each use, and trying to keep it clean before putting it on your face.

“You’ve got to change the mask,” Blocker said. “You can’t keep wearing the same mask all the time and if you’re constantly touching it and in and out of pockets and everything else then, yeah, there’s some chance that due to bacteria, and what’s in our respiration, that you could literally make yourself sick if you keep wearing the same mask every day all the time without washing it.”