This is an individual note from Jake Niece as one Ouray County Commissioner. I do not claim to represent the views of other Board members, or the Ouray County government as a whole.
In an effort to communicate more, especially for people who do not have the ability to attend Ouray County’s many public meetings, I’d like to share my reasoning for voting to extend the mask requirement.
My goals are to prevent as many Covid cases as possible, and to keep our businesses open and profitable.
Right now, not everybody who wants to be vaccinated has been. Many people, including myself, have not had enough time for our vaccinations to reach full efficacy. Our population under 16 also does not have the ability to be vaccinated. If we are too quick to discard the public health measures that are working to keep our Covid spread down, we risk more sick people, and we risk more restrictive requirements from the State. It would be like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you’re not getting wet.
Masks are one very effective and easy tool we can use to keep us in green. Our public health order does the same thing as the State requirement we’ve already been living with, we just extended it to all colors on the Covid dial so that the rules are predictable, and don’t yo-yo back and forth. I also don’t want to pass the buck to business owners. It is my opinion that part of the job of elected positions is to take responsibility for issues that some people do not like. I do not want to put that responsibility on someone who is just showing up to work.
The State government makes rules with the front range in mind, and the green level makes sense if we assume it’s just us year-round residents in the County. Our case numbers are low now, but the current green status doesn’t take into account the large influx of visitors on the way for summer from across the country, and internationally.
The Board will reevaluate the mask requirement again in 30 days. I am drafting up a list of metrics we can reference as a decision framework to use when reevaluating the mask requirement for public indoor spaces. I’ll bring it up for discussion at a public meeting with the Public Health and Medical Director before the next reevaluation.
Based on everything we have learned about this virus in the last year, and with direction from the Public Health Director, extending the mask requirement for now is the right decision to keep people healthy, keep our businesses open, and return to a more normal existence as soon as possible.
Jake Niece
Ouray County Commissioner