Pulaski County passes measure requiring masks
Quorum Court also approves locations of voting centers
The Pulaski County Quorum Court passed a contested mask ordinance aligning the county with Arkansas Department of Health guidelines during its monthly meeting Tuesday.
Ordinance 20-I-46 would require masks be worn inside businesses in the unincorporated areas of the county and require the sheriff’s office to support businesses that wish to enforce the use of masks on their premises by educating and encouraging members of the public to wear them and remove them from the premises if they do not comply.
“Let’s remember folks that this is a couple months old now and the state has moved forward with exactly what we’re doing,” County Judge Barry Hyde said.
Justice of the Peace Doug Reed said he was concerned about the masks wearing, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the effectiveness of the recommended masks.
“The surgical masks people wear can filter up to 3,000 nanometers and the covid virus is 120 nanometers,” Reed said. “I mean, it’s really small.”
Reed cited CDC literature that said it is unclear whether the masks could protect healthy people from contact with coronavirus-positive people.
“I don’t want people to have the false assumption that they’re protected just because they wear a mask,” Reed said. “So, I think that’s my concern.”
Hyde cited decreasing infection numbers in Pulaski
County as a correlation that the mask orders from the state may be working
“I’m not a scientist, so I can’t tell you if it’s this or that,” Hyde said. “But I can tell you that I consider it more than a coincidence that since the governor stepped up with leadership and said, ‘Everybody wear a mask’ and the Arkansas Department of Health said all people should wear a mask in indoors, or outdoors when they can’t social distance, it indicates that it’s helpful. [It’s] certainly not perfect, but it indicates that it’s helpful.”
In the end, Reed was the lone no vote in a 12-1 passage
of the ordinance, with two abstentions.
The Quorum Court also unanimously passed an ordinance to identify the 12 vote centers in Pulaski County, making voting more accessible to the public.
The voting centers are accessible to all registered voters on Election Day and also serve as early voting locations. This is in addition to assigned precinct Election Day polling sites.
Director of Elections Bryan Poe said that Hyde said in May that he did not back allocating funds to the voting center plan for new voting machines, but he would consider the voting centers pending a plan from the election commission.
Locations selected under
the ordinance are near high traffic areas in the county to give accessibility to the most people.
Those locations are:
■ Pulaski County Regional Building, 501 W. Markham St., Little Rock
■ Sue Cowan Williams Library, 1800 S. Chester St., Little Rock
■ Dee Brown Library, 6325 Baseline Road, Little Rock
■ Roosevelt Thompson Library, 38 Rahling Circle, Little Rock
■ William F. Laman Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock
■ Jacksonville Community Center, 5 Municipal Drive, Jacksonville
■ Jess Odom Community Center, 1100 Edgewood Drive, Maumelle
■ First Christian Church of Sherwood, 2803 Kiehl Ave., Sherwood
■ Sidney S. McMath Library, 2100 John Barrow Road, Little Rock
■ Hillary Clinton Children’s Library, 4800 W. 10th St., Little Rock
■ John Gould Fletcher Library, 823 N. Buchanan St., Little Rock
■ Adophine Fletcher Terry Library, 2015 Napa Valley Drive, Little Rock
The sites selected may change between now and upon implementation, according to the ordinance.
Justice of the Peace Curtis Keith called a special meeting of the Quorum Court for next Tuesday to discuss vacancies and expense issues within the sheriff’s office.