WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — This week the City of Wausau launched the “Wear one, Wausau” initiative to raise awareness for the city’s masking resolution, which calls for face coverings to be worn in all publicly accessible buildings but comes with no enforceable action.
Mayor Katie Rosenberg says the campaign comes from debate about the measure that occurred last November. “The council thought that an ordinance would be too harsh, they didn’t want police to go around fining people. But, they do really want people wearing a mask, and I do too,” said Rosenberg.
“[The Council] went with a resolution but they coupled that with directing me to put out some more educational content, a marketing campaign, and that kind of stuff. This is what became of that,” she added.
The campaign will feature social media posts along with PSA’s and special “Wear One, Wausau” logo face coverings. Rosenberg has also been encouraging her Twitter followers to post daily pictures of them masked up while at work or out shopping.
Rosenberg says while there is no fine or other possible forms of punishment that goes with the measure, it also doesn’t give residents a free pass to cause trouble if they are asked to leave a business because they aren’t masked up.
“Businesses [can] ask you to wear a mask, and if you cause a pain in their business they definitely have the authority to call the police and say ‘hey, we have some disorderly conduct going on here.’
“If anybody is causing a scene [businessowners] should feel empowered to call the police and work through it. It’s better to just encourage people to follow your policies, but we get that it’s pretty charged around here these days,” added Rosenberg.
The campaign launched as the state Senate was voting to pass a resolution that would overturn Governor Evers’ statewide mask mandate. The Assembly is scheduled to take up the measure on Thursday, and if they pass it as well the Governor’s order would be tossed effective immediately. Rosenberg says that vote will have no bearing on the city’s resolution.
“We decided to decouple our orders from the state’s emergency orders. The mask mandate here is tied to the Wausau emergency orders so this will still be in effect no matter what the legislature does.”
Other local measures in places like Madison and Milwaukee would also be unchanged.
Wausau’s resolution was first issued in November and currently runs through the end of March.
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