ROCK HILL, S.C. — It will now be up to individual shops, stores and businesses to decide if they want to hang on to mask requirements in the City of Rock Hill.
South Carolina has never had a statewide mask mandate. However, there have been requirements related to specific businesses. On Friday, Gov. Henry McMaster suddenly ended the mask mandate for restaurants and government buildings. At that moment, Rock Hill’s mask ordinance lost it’s legal leg to stand on.
Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys said the city couldn’t have a law in place that went beyond state law.
“The majority of us felt like after what the governor did, we couldn’t legally enforce it,” Gettys said.
So, Monday night city council voted narrowly, 4 to 3 to stop enforcement of the town mask mandate. The council’s action effectively ended the mandate, even though that will require a separate vote at the next meeting on March 22.
Some people Channel 9 spoke with applauded the move to end the requirement.
“I think it’s affected our lives for long enough. It’s about time we get back to reality,” Savannah McKinney said.
Others, like Kim Johnson who works in healthcare, felt like the city should have waited until the virus was more under control.
“Once we get more vaccines out and get the numbers down, then maybe we can reevaluate it, but right now, no. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous,” she said.
Susan Barry said she avoids people who don’t wear a mask in public and believes it’s not difficult to continue wearing them just to be safe.
“The time will come when we no longer need to wear them, but it’s not now. So it’s patience,” she said.
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City officials said they felt like people have done everything they can to protect their neighbors over the last year and it’s time to focus instead on the vaccine.
“Some people simply won’t wear a mask and don’t want the vaccine, which is their right. We can’t hold people to a standard that the state is not holding them to,” Gettys said.
The City of Rock Hill runs it’s own all-volunteer vaccine clinic, which has given more than 16,000 shots. City officials said that’s where the battle against COVID-19 is now.
Rock Hill police never wrote one single ticket to anyone violating the mask ordinance. Also, complaints officers received about businesses not enforcing it with customers or employees, was referred to city hall and not handled by police.
City officials said they are still encouraging mask wearing and hope people will continue to wear them in public until the levels of the virus in the community make it safe for everyone not to.
Cox Media Group
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