County opts out of 'wear a mask' campaign

Kootenai County Commissioners unanimously decided not to contribute to the “Wear a Mask” campaign launched in July to remind residents and visitors to wear masks and stop the spread of COVID-19.

Nine campaign partners, including the cities of Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene, Panhandle Health District, Kootenai Health, Heritage Health, School Districts 271 and 273, North Idaho College and Knudtsen Chevrolet have all committed to the movement.

After being approached by Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Widmyer about a week ago, Commissioner Chris Fillios brought up the option for county participation in their status update meeting Monday morning. Funded by COVID CARES Act dollars, the campaign was looking for more funding by all participating agencies, Fillios said.

“This is being spearheaded by Kiki Miller, a city councilwoman for Coeur d’Alene,” Fillios said. “The campaign is going to be more of a social media type campaign, and I don’t think they are anticipating print because it is more expensive.”

The area-wide program started two weeks after the Panhandle Health mandate and encouraged residents to wear masks using print, radio, television, social media, billboard and signage advertisements.

Billboards and signs have already been on display around Coeur d’Alene since late July and early August, saying, “Stop the spread. Wear a mask in Kootenai County.” According to reports from Simplifi, an advertising and digital signal processing platform, three of the mask campaigns — Coeur d’Alene Awareness, Coeur d’Alene Intent, and Connected TV — saw a combined 863,000 impressions and 851 viewer clicks.

Without a vaccine, Miller said in an email that she believed there is a greater need to continue the community messaging. Phase 2 for the mask campaign planned to rely on digital advertising placement like geofencing, social media, creative adjustments and public relations events.

However, the campaign is on hold until funding is available.

"Medical experts now tell us the next six to 12 weeks could be among the darkest for new COVID cases and deaths across the nation," Miller said. "At this time, we are relying solely on the citizens of Kootenai County to do the right thing by wearing a mask, socially distancing and practicing healthy hygiene habits, in order to keep our hospitals able to manage the health needs of our community and keep our schools open."

Fillios said he has mixed feelings about the county’s participation in the campaign, considering the mass amount of information already available to the public.

“I think there is enough word out there. I don’t have a problem doing it, but by the same token, I’m not going to go out on a limb to do it,” Fillios said. “I think people know enough that if they want to protect themselves, they can mask. It’s just as simple as that.”

The cities of Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene have used all available PSA COVID funding for Phase 1 of the campaign, Miller’s email said. For Phase 2, the campaign would need another $68,000.

"As the numbers now show, we are experiencing a surge in cases," Miller said. "We anticipate working with the state of Idaho in the coming months on ways we can partner to keep (promoting) the PSAs on best practices for stopping the spread and keeping our businesses open."

Funding for the PSAs will have to be done without county assistance, as the commissioners felt further advertising the need for masks was unnecessary.

“I’m not interested in it. If all these agencies are putting money toward it, I think the whole county is covered,” Commissioner Leslie Duncan said. “I don’t really see the value in it since we’ve had this mask mandate for months, and it hasn’t affected our numbers. I don’t see a benefit in it for me to spend CARES dollars on this campaign.”