COLUMBIA, S.C. — Over 30 citations were given over the weekend to people not abiding by the City of Columbia's mask mandate.
Since the end of June, the ordinance has been in effect in the City of Columbia.
For many months, the Columbia Fire Department- who is charged with enforcing this mandate- has given warnings and educated the public about following this order.
This weekend, they began giving out $25 citations.
“We’ve just been giving warning after warning after warning and I think it’s come to a point where you’ve gotta quit warning and you’ve gotta take some action," says Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey D. Jenkins.
Chief Jenkins says 32 mask citations were given out in Five Points over the Halloween Weekend, “In times past we just warned people and tell them about putting the mask on and they would comply but then when you walk off they take them back off," Chief Jenkins continues, "So between Friday night and last night, we issued citations. Friday we issued about 10 and Saturday night- last night- we issued about 22.”
Chief Jenkins says that most of the bars in Five Points were trying to enforce the ordinance by reminding people in line to put on their masks and even using bull horns to get the message across, “But to no avail, people were not listening to them. They could have asked them to get out of the line but some were listening some were not listening.”
Many of those who were being reminded were thanking the fire department for looking out for their safety, “The name of the game is to keep people safe. And I will tell you, there were people in line with their masks on and they were just absolutely ecstatic, happy that we were out here enforcing it because some of them – most of them- were thanking us even some of the ones that we asked to put their masks on, they said ‘thank you for keeping us safe.’
While the ordinance is not going anywhere, for the time being, Chief Jenkins and the fire department want to remind people that this is for their own safety, “We just want to make sure that we as South Carolinians, Richland Co, City of Columbia or wherever you may be- that we are doing our part to curb this pandemic. But we’ve all got to work together.”
Although the citations were given in Five Points, they were also monitoring the Vista, Main Street, and any other tips that came into the station.