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BELLEFONTE -- Earlier this week, Bellefonte Borough Council unanimously passed a resolution related to mask-wearing in the county seat.
The resolution comes in place of a masking/social distance ordinance, which would have had fines attached to it. Borough manager Ralph Stewart explained why the borough opted for a resolution rather than an ordinance.
"The borough masking/social distancing ordinance has been put on hold for now," Stewart said. "The main reason for that is that Governor's Wolf's issuance of an executive order of Nov. 23 … in his order, it has much more restrictive language than what our borough ordinance had in the draft. In order to eliminate additional costs on the borough and a tremendous amount of confusion with a lesser strength ordinance and a more restrictive state executive order, we decided to put on hold the borough ordinance for now."
Monday's resolution is entitled, "A resolution to save lives and bring back jobs by endorsing, supporting and complying with Governor's Wolf's mandatory mask wearing and local enforcement guidelines for Pennsylvanians during the COVID-19 pandemic."
According to the borough's Facebook page, the resolution does the following:
1. It endorses and supports Governor Wolf's and the PA Department of Health's mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing orders of November 23, 2020 for Pennsylvanians when outdoors or in a public place order;
2. It calls on people who live, work, learn, and play in Bellefonte to wear masks when in a public space where social distancing can't be maintained or when in a business following the Governor's guidelines;
3. It extends our profound appreciation to the leaders of businesses, nonprofits, institutions of faith, and other organizations who have encouraged the wearing of cloth masks to help protect people and safely reopen our economy;
4. It declares that Bellefonte Borough will comply with these state policies and directs the Bellefonte Borough Police to educate the public and enforce all state-mandated COVID-19 orders as outlined in Governor wolf's order on November 23, 2020, and any subsequent orders during this emergency;
5. The borough will post this resolution in the COVID-19 section of our website (this will be posted within the next two days) and on the Borough's Facebook Page. And additional COVID-19 orders from the PA Department of Health will be similarly posted.
6. It declares that this resolution shall remain active until the Commonwealth fully lifts the statewide emergency with no further restrictions.
Basically, this resolution declares that we will follow the current state COVID-19 order and all future orders from the state until the state emergency is lifted. So if the state relaxes these mandates, we will follow this relaxation, and if they make the orders more restrictive, we will follow these orders as well.
According to Stewart, the borough isn't opposed to re-visiting the masking ordinance in the future.
"If at some time in the future, the state executive order goes away and there's still a problem in Bellefonte, then certainly council can resurrect the ordinance and pick up with a public forum and go forward. Right now, everything related to the ordinance is on hold," Stewart said.
As far as the resolution is concerned, Stewart said there is a world of difference between an ordinance and a resolution.
"A resolution has no teeth. It's not a law. It's more or less a statement from borough council," Stewart said.
Council president Joanne Tosti-Vasey said that she was completely behind the resolution.
"We are now in a second surge that has reached the Bellefonte area. 19 percent of all the COVID-19 cases diagnosed in our zip code were diagnosed in the last week alone," Tosti-Vasey said. "That is a huge amount."
Borough council will meet again at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 21. That will be council's final meeting of 2020. The meeting will be televised live by C-NET.