Ellsworth City Administrator Rusty Varnado clarified at Monday’s meeting of the Ellsworth City Council what the end of the countywide face mask mandate would mean for Ellsworth residents.
Varnado, who attended Monday morning’s meeting of the Ellsworth County commissioners, said both Dr. Ronald Whitmer, county health officer, and Kerianne Ehrlich, supervisor of the county health department, felt comfortable — with no new cases in the last two weeks and Texas doing well with opening up for normal business — with rescinding the mandate for Ellsworth County.
Varnado noted the mask mandate was approved by the commissioners in November.
The Ellsworth City Council then essentially made the county’s mask mandate the city’s mask mandate. Therefore, Monday’s rescinding of the mandate by commissioners also ended the face mask mandate for the city of Ellsworth.
“The masks are no longer required in Ellsworth,” Varnado said. “Individual businesses and individuals can still decide if they are going to wear it.”
Varnado said in the past week or so, he visited with the owners of 95 percent of the businesses in Ellsworth to see how they felt about rescinding the mandate.
“I didn’t have a single business tell me they were in favor of extending it,” he said. “I had a number tell me they were somewhat concerned about rescinding it, but they wouldn’t contest it, they wouldn’t require their customers to wear it (a mask) if it wasn’t mandatory.”
 In other business:
• No action was taken after a 10-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel (personnel matters).
• Action on the First Street sidewalk project was tabled after Wayne Scritchfield, council president, voiced concerns centering on the project’s compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. He suggested the city hire an engineer to do the project right.
• Approval was given to a motion to adopt Ordinance No. 3111. The ordinance amends and restates city code 10.26.020 relating to the operation of work site utility vehicles and micro utility trucks, golf carts and prohibits all-terrain vehicles. It also repeals city ordinance 3084.
• Approval of up to $49,000 was given to have Circle C Paving perform the 2021 chip seal project.
• The council discussed well maintenance with Joe Travnichek, water and sewer superintendent. Travnichek said such maintenance is essential to mitigate significant future expenditures and service interruptions to the city’s water supply. The council has a bid from Karst Well Service but asked Travnichek to get a couple of more bids for consideration.
• The updated fee schedule was approved. One of the items the schedule increases from the last fee schedule in 2019 was the cost of burial permits. A cremation burial permit increases from $60 to $150 on weekdays and $300 on weekends. Full burial permits increase from $250 to $350 on weekdays and $500 on weekends.
Varnado said the updated fee schedule is in line with what other area communities have.
• He said the city received its liability insurance renewal from Alliance Insurance. The premium increase was six percent for 2021. Varnado tried to get additional bids but he started too late. Next year, he will get additional policy bids for the council to consider.
Varnado said the contractor for the airport runway project requested a six week delay, but he disagreed. The work will begin April 1.
“We’re adding 400 feet to the length of the runway,” he said.
Varnado said the project on Eighth Street is continuing.
“When they started last week they had 24 working days left,” he said. “Then they hit a sewer line.”
At Monday’s commission meeting, Varnado said the city has preliminary approval from the state on the turn lanes at K-156 and K-140 highways.
“That’s a pretty good deal for the city,” he said. “That’s right at $30,000 is all that it’s costing us for that particular project.”
In comparison, Varnado said the turn lanes near Carrico Implement cost $500,000.
He said Casey’s General Store in Ellsworth is ready to move forward with its renovation.
“They’re looking to expand that into more of a truck stop-like facility,” Varnado said. “It would be great with traffic coming through and overnight stays.”
He said the city plans to dig the water retention basin in Krizek Park out about four feet.
“All that flood water that usually gathers downtown is going to flood into Krizek Park and dissipate over on the other side of K-140,” Varnado said.
He estimated that dissipation will take about 48 hours.
Varnado said the disc golf course will remain in Krizek Park and will only be interrupted when there is flooding.
“Dave Cox puts on a couple of great Frisbie golf tournaments every year,” he said. “They’re good for the city and the county. So we wanted to make sure that didn’t get interrupted anymore than it has to.”
Work on the water retention basin has been awarded and will start the second week of August.
Varnado said three Ellsworth businesses are looking to expand with new $500,000 facilities.
‘Hopefully, sometime this year they can break ground,” he said.
But first, Varnado said the city and the county will have to work through the Neighborhood Revitalization Program, which ends at the end of the year.
The next meeting of the Ellsworth City Council is at 5:30 p.m. Monday, April 12, at city hall.