County mayors respond to letter pleading for mask mandate

JACKSON, Tenn. — Leaders with West Tennessee Healthcare are asking neighboring counties to consider a mask mandate.

“The letter was just basically asking, ‘Can you help us out,’ and it was something we need to consider,” said Humboldt Mayor Marvin Sikes.

Humboldt is in Gibson County, where — so far — there isn’t a mask mandate.

This week, leaders with West Tennessee Healthcare sent a letter to nearby counties asking their mayors to consider enacting a mask mandate.

Back in early July, Gov. Bill Lee gave county mayors in 89 states the authority to enforce mask mandates.

“The six mayors in the state with their own health departments, they can pretty much do what they want to do,” Sikes said.

However, mayors in towns like Humboldt and McKenzie in Carroll County, do not have the authority to create a mask mandate in their city because they do not have their own health department.

“We have to just follow what the governor says,” Sikes said.

Instead, it’s up to the county mayor. Carroll County does not have a mask mandate.

“The concern is, what happens when these hospitals say they’ll only accept their residents?” Mayor Jill Holland, of McKenzie, said. “What happens when the hospitals get completely full?”

Both mayors say they’ve heard concerns from citizens, and Holland said she’s even heard from people living in surrounding communities that go to McKenzie.

She said one man called and was worried about people not wearing masks in businesses where he went shopping.

“I suggested that he call the management of the stores because I do not have that power to make anyone wear a mask or not,” Holland said.

Both say if the county enacted a mask mandate, they’d support it.

According to the Tennessee Department of Health, Gibson County has a total of 670 cases with five deaths and 293 recovered.

Carroll County has 290 total cases, with three deaths and 89 recovered.