Monday at 6 a.m., College Station businesses are required to have employees and visitors cover their face.
Mayor Karl Mooney’s order follows unanimous city council support on Thursday night.
The order, which can be extended, continues through July 10 at 11:59 p.m.
Click HERE to read and download the face covering order.
The mayor says he is meeting Friday with Brazos County judge Duane Peters about a county wide order or resolution. County commissioners are scheduled to consider the requirement next Tuesday.
The city council’s decision ten public speakers during Thursday’s meeting. Nine of the ten supported the requirement.
Hear comments from Thursday’s College Station city council meeting during Friday newscasts on 1620, 94.5, and radioaggieland.com.
The six page order includes the following language:
From this Order’s effective date, every commercial entity in the City of College Station providing goods or services directly to the public must develop and implement a health and safety policy (“Health and Safety Policy”).
The Health and Safety Policy must require, at a minimum, that every employee or visitor to the commercial entity’s business premises or other facilities wear a face covering over their nose and mouth, according to the CDC guidelines, when in an undivided room or area with coworkers or the public or while performing an activity which necessarily involves or is reasonably likely to involve close proximity to coworkers or the public such that six feet of separation is not feasible.
The Health and Safety Policy required to be developed and implemented by this Order may also include the implementation of other mitigating measures designed to control and reduce the transmission of COVID-19, such as temperature checks or health screenings.
The commercial entity must post the Health and Safety Policy required by this Order in a conspicuous location sufficient providing notice to employees and visitors of its Health and Safety Policy.
Failure to develop, conspicuously place, and implement the Health and Safety Policy required by this Order after its passage may result in a fine not to exceed $1,000.00. Each day for which a Health and Safety Policy is not developed, conspicuously placed, and implemented shall be a separate offense.
This Order does not apply to and it is a defense to prosecution that the commercial entity operated a restaurant or bar and did not require a patron to wear a face covering while eating or drinking when the patron was at least six feet away from persons not in his or her party.
The order spells out what constitutes a face covering:
All persons 10 years or older must wear a face covering, according to the CDC guidelines, over their nose and mouth when in a public place where it is difficult to keep six feet away from other people or working in areas that involve close proximity with coworkers. The CDC advises face coverings for people 2 years or older. Face coverings may include homemade masks, scarfs, bandanas, or handkerchiefs. City of College Station residents should continue maintaining social distancing of at least six feet while outside their homes. And all City of College Station employees are required to wear face coverings under the same circumstances as the general public.
As for penalties to businesses that violate the order:
A violation of this order shall be a fine of not less than one dollar ($1.00) and no more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00), and each day a violation exists shall be a separate offense. This Order also authorizes the use of any other lawfully available enforcement tools.