No masks? No tickets, either

Law enforcers across the county agreed last week that they favor education over enforcement of the freshly declared countywide mask mandate, and they were true to their word.

As of Monday afternoon, a Press survey of area police departments and the sheriff’s office showed zero citations had been issued since the mask mandate went into effect last Thursday. With a few exceptions, failure to wear a mask in a public place in Kootenai County is a misdemeanor punishable by fines up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail.

There was no record of how many warnings might have been issued.

— Reed Perry