{"id":91143,"date":"2020-05-21T22:26:36","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T22:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/survey-majority-of-durango-businesses-support-face-covering-requirement\/"},"modified":"2020-05-21T22:26:36","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T22:26:36","slug":"survey-majority-of-durango-businesses-support-face-covering-requirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/survey-majority-of-durango-businesses-support-face-covering-requirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey: Majority of Durango businesses support face-covering requirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Karen
Karen Fabrizio and Ed Graham wear their masks on Wednesday while visiting downtown Durango. When asked why they are wearing masks, Graham said, \u201cWe are from Albuquerque and they are required there so we have gotten used to wearing them.\u201d A survey of 355 businesses in Durango shows about 65% support a proposed requirement for face coverings.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A majority of Durango businesses support an ordinance that goes into effect Friday, which requires face coverings within city limits, according to a survey conducted by the Durango Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

Jack Llewellyn, director of the chamber, said the survey went out to the chamber\u2019s entire membership. Of the 355 businesses that responded, he said 65% supported the city\u2019s effort to require masks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised it is so high,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I feel the reason is, businesses want to protect their employees. And if customers are required to wear a mask, then that helps protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amber Blake, interim city manager, said the order was signed Thursday and took effect Friday. It requires face coverings in businesses<\/a>, public transit and public places where 6-foot social distancing cannot be maintained.<\/p>\n

Businesses contacted by The Durango Herald<\/em> on Wednesday voiced support for the ordinance.<\/p>\n

Dave Woodruff, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association\u2019s Durango chapter and general manager of El Moro Spirits and Tavern, said most restaurant owners he\u2019s talked to are in support of the measure.<\/p>\n

Woodruff said restaurant owners want to keep their staff safe. But if a restaurant owner is the one to put the requirement in place, customers who refuse to wear a mask may take it out on employees, evidenced by incidents across the country. On Monday, a man shot and wounded a cook<\/a> at a Waffle House in Aurora after the restaurant staff asked the man to wear a face covering.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just takes the onus off the restaurant having to be the enforcement piece,\u201d Woodruff said. \u201cIt makes it easier for us to say, \u2018This is the law. We didn\u2019t make the law. We just have to abide by it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Willa Vaughan, manager of Animas Trading Co., said since reopening earlier this month, the store has required customers who come inside the shop to wear masks, with varying success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a pretty big majority of people who refuse to wear a mask or give us a really hard time, saying, \u2018We\u2019re not going to shop here again,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut we\u2019re willing to lose that business if they\u2019re not going to \u2026 be safe in public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A survey of 355 businesses in Durango shows a majority of about 65% support a requirement for face coverings.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Vaughan said the issue over masks is a daily conflict that has picked up more as people from outside the community start visiting Durango. She, too, said making it a city requirement will make it easier on the store and staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wear masks, so I think it\u2019s fair our customers wear masks,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a common respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach Beavers, an employee at Duranglers Flies & Supplies, said the store also requires masks, and offers face coverings to customers coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who don\u2019t want to wear it seem to just leave with no grief,\u201d he said. \u201cBut most people are cooperative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnna Bronson, owner of Lively, a boutique shop, said she\u2019s probably lost some business as a result of requiring face coverings, but she said the vast majority of customers appreciate the safety measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being friendly as possible about it,\u201d Bronson said.<\/p>\n

But not all Durango businesses support the requirement. Trevor Bird, owner of Durango Harley-Davidson, said he requires his employees to wear face coverings, but it\u2019s not the government\u2019s place to tell customers to wear a mask.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s full-on government overreach and absolutely ridiculous,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing is more important to me than the health and safety of my employees, but it\u2019s a choice we need to make as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite staunch opposition to the mask requirement, come Friday, Bird said he would follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have to agree with our government, but I have to respect the rules they put in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Local health officials say that previous public health orders that asked people to stay at home and closed businesses deemed nonessential were effective in flattening the curve of the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

But now that those regulations are being relaxed, with more businesses opening and tourism picking up, officials have voiced concern cases could increase. As a result, face coverings are seen as an effective way to help slow the spread as the economy reopens.<\/p>\n

\u201c(A mandatory order) might not be appropriate in other parts of our entire county, but Durango is the epicenter of commerce, and we are hosting this influx of people as we reopen our community,\u201d Mayor Dean Brookie said Tuesday night. \u201cTherefore, we are on the front line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango city councilors were unanimous in their support of the ordinance.<\/p>\n

Liane Jollon, executive director of San Juan Basin Public Health, said Tuesday research indicates that if 90% of the population wore masks and social distanced, transmission rates could decrease by 80%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not seeing enough compliance to feel like we\u2019ve really nailed this,\u201d she said. \u201cWe would be in a safer community with less transmission of disease if we were able to really get to that last piece of resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

But requiring face coverings has become a hot-button subject. While the state has issued only an advisory to wear masks, about 10 other towns and counties in Colorado made it a requirement.<\/p>\n

Mitzi Rapkin, a spokeswoman for Aspen, said the effort has been relatively successful.<\/p>\n

Aspen officials created an educational campaign that gave informational posters for businesses to hang up and placed signs around town. And, more than 1,000 face coverings were provided to individuals, and hundreds more to businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation is the most powerful approach,\u201d Rapkin said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a work in progress when a law is passed in an emergency, but I think the community and the city really rallied to support it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Police Cmdr. Ray Shupe said the face-covering requirement will be treated just like previous public health orders: by trying to educate people and obtain voluntary compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEnforcement is always the last resort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

To date, Durango police have not written any citations for violations to public health orders. And officers haven\u2019t seen the type of flare-ups over the regulations that other places in Colorado and the country have experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to be heavy-handed or enforcement minded,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to educate and be proactive. And it\u2019s working for us. Our community is great that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango\u2019s Blake said an educational campaign will be rolled out, with signs around town and information distributed to businesses. The timing is especially important as more tourists enter the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou wear a mask to protect the people you\u2019re surrounded by,\u201d Blake said \u201cThey wear a mask to protect you.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Businesses weigh in on eve of new rules<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,507,13,445,4259,668,686],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango-city-officials","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-newsletter-sign-up","tag-public-health","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91143"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}