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FRANKLIN COUNTY, Mo. – Franklin County’s mask mandate order expired Sunday, December 20 at noon.

Franklin County Presiding Commissioner Tim Brinker said the county chose to not create a new order to mandate masks.

“We’re very happy with the results,” he said.

Brinker believes it will be up to the residents of Franklin County to protect themselves from COVID-19. He said part of the reason the county leaders chose not to create a new order was that they could not enforce a mask mandate in the county.

“Governments can’t police these rules when they’re put in place and it’s going to be up to the individual to take responsibility for themselves … to protect themselves and others,” he said.

Brinker said there were residents happy and others upset by the mask mandate.

“We trust the people we represent, we trust the people that visit here, we trust everybody’s knowledge to do what they need to do, government saying on paper you have to do this or else, does not change the way I’m going to behave or anybody else is going to behave, quite frankly, in terms of we have to be responsible for our actions, just like anything, we’ve proven this because we found and discovered it’s not forcible,” Brinker said.