Orland Park Sets Special Meeting For Aug. 6 After Governor Announces Mask Mandate For Schools

Orland Park IL

06 August, 2021

3:51 PM

Description

By Jon DePaolis, Richard Free Press: ORLAND PARK, Ill. — The Village of Orland Park has scheduled a special hearing for 4 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, with the sole intent to discuss a resolution encouraging State of Illinois lawmakers to convene to address COVID-19 issues. This comes after Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced a state mask mandate for both public and private pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade schools and daycares on Wednesday, Aug. 4. The face covering rules will apply to all students, teachers and staff, regardless of vaccination status. It also will require masks for participants in indoor sporting events. "Given our current trajectory in hospitalizations and ICU usage, we have a limited amount of time right now to stave off the highest peaks of this surge going into the fall," stated Pritzker in a press release issued by his office on Aug. 4. "To combat the Delta variant, Illinois is taking three key steps to protect our state's 1.8 million unvaccinated children under 12 and their families, residents and staff of long-term care facilities, and those highly vulnerable people who rely upon state employees for their daily care. I also encourage every Illinoisan who is eligible to get vaccinated as soon as possible, as millions of their neighbors already have. This vaccine is safe, effective, and essentially eliminates the risk of hospitalization and death even from the Delta variant. In short, it's the best tool we have." According to the information posted on the Village's website regarding the Aug. 6 meeting, the Village Board will convene to ask lawmakers to reexamine Pritzker's mask and vaccine mandates, as well as his executive orders "and provide for fact-based mitigation measures with reasonable guidelines designed to promote the health and welfare of Illinois residents in response to the COVID-19 outbreak." Mayor Keith Pekau said he had not heard anything from state officials prior to the announcement by Pritzker on Aug. 4. "I never hear anything from the state," he said. "We get the information the same way everyone else does — through a press conference. That's how the governor communicates." Pekau said the Village will not be enforcing the governor's mask mandate. "He's overstepped his authority, and it is up to the state legislature to pass laws," he said.Pekau also said the mandates were more "massive government overreach." He claimed that as of Aug. 3, there were no COVID-19 positive patients in the intensive care units at Palos or Silver Cross hospitals. Richard Free Press is a one-stop destination for the news that most affects you, the southwest suburban resident. Be an informed citizen of the town you live in and love.