Mayor Conger recommends businesses enforce face coverings

JACKSON, Tenn. — No shirt, no shoes, no mask… No service? Our local mayors want to leave mask enforcement up to businesses.

“Why would you not be considerate of the other people that are in this community?” asked Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris.

“I agree with Mayor Harris,” said City of Jackson Mayor Scott Conger. “It’s frustrating.”

For weeks now, local leaders have pleaded with you to wear a mask while out in public. But as far as making it mandatory, Mayor Conger says he and Mayor Harris haven’t talked about it. In Wednesday’s press conference, Mayor Conger and Mayor Harris gave a variety of reasons for this.

“You don’t want to make a rule or make a law that you can’t enforce,” Mayor Conger said. “So how would we enforce having, from the city’s standpoint, 68,000 people, making sure they wear a mask everywhere they go?”

“We don’t want to step on any more freedoms than we have to, and we want to get out of the business of doing this, because it is not fun. Believe me,” Mayor Harris said.

But, while they’re not enforcing it, they’re asking local businesses to consider it.

“I was thinking yesterday, you used to see signs in businesses of, ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service.’ Maybe businesses should get that sign and put, ‘no mask’ as well,” Mayor Conger said.

And if you don’t have a mask, the State of Tennessee is stepping in to help you out. Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department Director Kim Tedford said they’re now giving them out for free.

“We received here at the health department our first allocation of masks. I want to show you that. I’m holding it upside down. It’s black. It’s made of a black sock. It has ‘TN’ in the corner,” Tedford explained.

In Madison County, these masks can be picked up at the health department or WIC Center.

Those face masks are being produced out of a plant in Cleveland, and they’re being shipped to all 95 counties in Tennessee.

For more information on the health department’s free face masks, click here.

For the latest in local coronavirus coverage, check out our COVID-19 page.