Indiana Borough Council will take a look at an ordinance concerning face coverings tomorrow night.
The draft ordinance, which was posted last week, will be up for approval during tomorrow night’s borough planning session. If approved, borough residents and visitors would be required to wear facial coverings as directed by the Wolf Administration’s mask orders. That means that a face mask is required outdoors in situations where six feet of personal distancing is not able to be followed, but family groups will be allowed to be together. Masks would also be required in any indoor location where the public is admitted, waiting for or riding on a bus, taxi or ride-sharing vehicle, when obtaining services from a medical facility or doctor’s office, and engaged in work. The borough also added a mask requirement for people waiting in line to enter a business.
The ordinance also follows the PA Department of Health guidelines for gathering sizes, limiting indoor gatherings to 25 people or less, and outdoor gatherings to 250 people or less.
Exceptions are allowed for people who cannot wear masks during medical conditions, where a mask would make doing a task unsafe, people who can’t remove a mask on their own, children under the age of two or those looking to communicate with someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. People are not required to show any documents that would prove they qualify for any exceptions.
Police, parking enforcement and code enforcement departments will be allowed to act as “ambassadors for communication and education regarding community spread of Covid-19” and to issue civil citations. A written warning will be given for a first offense, with a fine of $50 for the second offense, $75 for a third offense, and $300 for the fourth and any subsequent offenses.
The bill would go into effect immediately upon passage and would end at the end of the year.
The full ordinance is available on the borough’s website, which you can access by clicking here. The meeting will be held Tuesday at 7:00 PM on Zoom video chat.
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