The mayor of Winona, Minnesota tried to implement a citywide mask mandate last week, only to get shut down by the city council roughly a day and a half later.
Mayor Scott Sherman signed a temporary mask mandate into order last Wednesday night, making the order effective Thursday at 12:01 a.m.
“This is not an easy decision. It is something I had been working on for the last couple weeks,” Sherman said in a Friday meeting.
Sherman made the decision on his own, “based on the information I had from my trusted health sources to try and save lives,” he said.
“Inconvenience will never outweigh a human life in my mind,” Sherman continued.
However, the mandate was short lived, as the Winona City Council voted 4-3 to end the mask mandate in an emergency meeting Friday morning, after the mayor asked members to “truly look in yourselves and do what’s right.”
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, said in a statement that the council’s vote is “encouraging news.” As a business owner in the city of Winona, Drazkowski said he was at first “incredibly frustrated” with the mayor’s mandate.
“Mayor Sherman thought he could unilaterally issue a decree and try to control my business, the customers who shop at my store, and everyone else in Winona. However, he was wrong,” Drazkowski said, noting that the city council “thankfully restored order.”
He said citizens are now becoming aware of the government’s overreach.
“People across Minnesota are waking up and stopping the authoritarian overreach that the government has perpetrated,” Drazkowski wrote in a statement.
Gov. Tim Walz implemented “unilateral and harmful” actions and a “far-left agenda” at the statewide level, Drazkowski remarked.
“I will … speak out against local actions that are similarly dictatorial,” he said.
The mayor of Rochester also recently declared a citywide mask mandate, only to be out-voted by the city council days later.
Several school districts will be requiring masks to be worn by all regardless of vaccination status, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, Sartell-St. Stephen, Edina, Duluth, and many others.
Rose Williams
Rose Williams is an assistant editor for Alpha News.
