By Tonja Becker, Stevensville
A public matter has come to my attention that the community of Stevensville should be concerned with. I have been closely paying attention to the local news and read the letter that the mayor wrote to the school board asking them to reconsider their decision on mask wearing. When visiting town hall one can see a multitude of signs asking citizens to wear masks. My concern is that some of the elected public officials are not following the rules that they have put in place.
When recently visiting town hall I witnessed Mayor Brandon Dewey and another employee not practicing social distancing and also not wearing masks. To see this first hand is upsetting and sending a hypocritical image to the people of Stevensville. What I see from him is “do as I say and not as I do!” At meetings, I also notice that if he takes any comments as personal criticism he then shuts them all down by saying “this is not a time for dialog but just for comments.” It is concerning that there is a limit to the number of attendees at the town hall meetings. If the amount of attendees exceeds the fire marshal’s recommendation, then the meetings need to be moved to another space to accommodate everyone.
All citizens have the right to have their grievances heard and put on record. Citizens are not legally obligated to wear a mask. If we the people are kind enough to put one on then I feel that Mayor Brandon Dewey should put one on and all his employees. Not just for show at the town meetings and for the news reporters.