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Tonganoxie City Council OKs letting mask ordinance expire by 3-2 vote

By Shawn Linenberger - | Apr 7, 2021

Shawn Linenberger

Tonganoxie City Council members meet Jan. 19 at the new council chambers at the former library, 303 Bury St.

The Tonganoxie mask ordinance will expire later this month.

Tonganoxie City Council members voted, 3-2, Monday to let the current ordinance expire at 11:59 p.m. April 14.

Council Members Jennifer McCutchen and Loralee Stevens voted against letting the ordinance expire.

Fellow Council Member Jake Dale proved to be the swing vote Monday.

Dale, who previously had voted in favor of the ordinance and an extension of the ordinance, voted to let it expire later this month.

The vote has been 3-2 each time the ordinance has been discussed, with Council Members Chris Donnelly and Rocky Himpel voting against each time. Mayor David Frese was the deciding vote in December to break a 2-2 tie, with Stevens and Dale voting in favor. McCutchen was appointed in January and voted with Dale and Stevens when the original ordinance was set to expire.

Before Assistant City Manager Dan Porter took a roll call vote Monday, City Manager George Brajkovic laid out general information about the history of the ordinance and the council’s options Monday.

When the ordinance first went into effect this past December, Tonganoxie had 44 active COVID-19 cases and 268 positive cases overall as of Dec. 11.

When the council voted to extend the mask ordinance in January, active cases were at 25 and goal positive at 375.

Tonganoxie was at five active cases March 29 (449 positive overall) and as of Monday, there was one active case (450 overall).

Brajkovic said he couldn’t speak to any correlation between the mask mandate and active cases trending downward or if it was “just random” that the numbers were going down at the same time.

The city manager also noted that Leavenworth County is sitting at about 12% of residents have been vaccinated “if the assumption is that all reported vaccinations through Leavenworth County Health Department went to Leavenworth County residents.”

Leavenworth County Health Department has administered 13,876 first doses and 9,778 second doses for 23,654 total.

“I’ve been proud of the people who have taken this seriously in the community,” Stevens said. “There were people who put a lot of thought into it and caring for others.”