Halifax County to ramp up enforcement of mask mandate

Sheriff Wes Tripp says the enforcement effort comes after some businesses failed to comply with warnings issued by county health officials.

Business owners at Mayflower Seafood restaurant are not happy about this new mandate.

In June, Tripp posted on social media that his deputies wouldn’t enforce Gov. Roy Cooper’s mask mandate but would instead try to educate people about the need to cover their faces during the pandemic.

“We didn’t know what we had to start with and it scared everybody. Nobody knew, but where we are now in October I think we have pretty good understanding of what we’re doing. If I wear a mask that protects you, if you wear a mask that protects me,” Tripp said.

Business owners will now be cited if they don’t require employees to wear a mask. For restaurants like Mayflower seafood – this is not the problem.

“I know our servers wear masks at all times especially when they’re interacting with customers,” said Anna Frangos, the manager at Mayflower.

The problem is that customers could face trespass charges if a business owner tells them to put on a mask or leave and they fail to do either. Frangos says this will hurt sales even more.

“If someone in the party doesn’t have a mask then they feel like they should all go and I feel that’s going to hurt us,” Frangos said.

Especially since they’re only seating half the tables they normally would, and dine-in sales have dropped drastically since March.

Elaine Evans is a regular at the restaurant, and she says that face masks help, but charges should be a last resort.

“If it comes down to it if they don’t want to listen then they need to protect other people also,” Evans said.

This new mandate is effective immediately.