MORGANTOWN — Following Monday’s ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, the Mountain Line Transit Authority voted Friday to eliminate its mask requirement for riders.
The vote, held during a brief special meeting, went 5-1, with Jenny Dinsmore, Terri Cutright, Wes Nugent, Jeremy Evans and Ron Bane voting in the majority, and Marly Ynigues voting in the minority.
Mizelle, a federal judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, struck down the federal mask mandate on public transportation earlier this week, leaving transit systems to decide for themselves, at least pending a U.S. Justice Department appeal coming at the request of the Centers for Disease Control.
“As I’ve been watching the press releases, there’s been a variety of reactions,” Mountain Line CEO David Bruffy said. “I think most systems are encouraging passengers to continue to wear a mask. Some transit systems, if they’re in a municipality like Philadelphia, they’re continuing to require masks for their passengers. So it’s really a mixed bag at this point.”
Bruffy said masks will continue to be made available for all Mountain Line riders. He said efforts to increase air circulation on the buses will continue and that buses are sanitized and disinfected weekly.
The transit board’s decision follows that of WVU, which removed its mask requirement for the PRT and university buses on Wednesday.
Friday’s meeting included public input from a pair of speakers, both of whom encouraged the board to keep the mask mandate in place.
Joseph Wilkins, a WVU student, said Mountain Line’s ridership is largely comprised of college students and low-income residents.
“These are two groups for which COVID-19 infection can be disproportionately burdensome. Low-income people cannot afford to lose working time while isolating and university students may lose their standing in classes,” Wilkins said.
Brian Butcher, who represents the 7th Ward on Morgantown City Council, said he would be hesitant to take his unvaccinated 4-year-old on a bus without the mask mandate.
“The mask mandate was struck down in a matter in which most can reasonably agree that was not in the best interest of public health,” Butcher said, noting of Monongalia County COVID data, “If one county in particular needs to keep this up, it would be ours.”
On Tuesday, Butcher joined the rest of city council in voting to end the mask requirement for the city’s public meetings.
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