By: 1808Delaware
UPDATED: Masks will be required beginning on Wednesday, July 15. If you do not have one, individually packaged masks will be available at each library location.
The vote was as close as it could be. In the end, the Delaware County District Library Board of Trustees voted at its Monday Board Meeting to require a facial covering upon entering all library buildings.
The effective date was not announced.
In an extended and intense discussion, many issues were raised that echo positions expressed on social media and elsewhere on what has become a passionate issue.
Attorney Eric Penkal from the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office expressed caution against a mark mandate. While recognizing that the Board could make its own policy, he shared that there are constitutional and/or other questions which have not been resolved regarding libraries issuing such rules.
He would not have “comfort” in defending a library in a courtroom, he shared. By contrast, the Ohio Department of Health has strong statutory authority, Penkal added, and that the Board would actually be on a stronger footing to completely close buildings.
Enforcement was discussed, with the idea advanced that if mask wearing is needed to project staff and patrons, and there is not a legal basis to create the policy, then the only alternative would be just that — to close the buildings altogether. In response, the question also was posed as to why, if the County and the State of Ohio do not have Delaware County in a mask-wearing category, why the Library Board would go in the opposite direction.
In the end, three Trustees voted in favor and two against, and the motion carried.
In a previous unanimous vote, the Board adopted a building closure and services policy that aligns the District with the State of Ohio’s new Public Health Advisory color/number system. Moving to a “Level 3,” for instance, would result in closure of buildings but maintenance of curbside and other services; a “Level 4” would terminate all services during the pendency of that status.
