A local resident has written the Mayor of Stanley over concerns as to how the City is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. Scott Hamilton of Dewey Street on the City’s southeast side wrote Mayor Al Haas in a letter dated November 15 regarding concerns he has over the novel coronavirus. “It sorrows me greatly to write to you and complain about how the City of Stanley is handling the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hamilton wrote to Haas in his November 15 letter. Going on to say

that he tried his best “to shop locally here in Stanley,” Hamilton

said this same local commitment was “getting harder and harder” as a result of the way the City was handling the pandemic.

Saying that it seemed people need to be helped out with wearing a mask and that there was “a wheel tax, hospitality tax, room

tax, gas tax, and more,” the local resident shared his belief that it was time to start _ning those who didn’t comply with measures meant to safeguard public health. As supporting evidence for this argument, Hamilton wrote Haas that “there is not one hospital bed open in Stanley or the whole state of Wisconsin, Michigan or Minnesota,” but that “people…think it is no big

deal.” Calling on those in disbelief at the hospital bed situation

to look up the numbers if they didn’t believe him, Hamilton said that store owners and managers would post the governor’s mandate but not enforce it, reportedly afraid to lose business. Meanwhile, a big box store was reaping the pro_ts thereof.

“Menards will not let people in their stores without a mask, and they are on track to set new all-time sales records, so that argument isn’t valid,” Hamilton said in his letter to the Mayor that was brie_y touched on at the last Council meeting. In council talk following, proposed enforcement measures such as a

_ne for non-compliance were deemed ‘unenforceable’ and

that attempting as much so would take away from strained City resources elsewhere by tying up police and the like.

“I think it comes down to personal responsibility,” alderman Jacob Huff gave his opinion of the matter, with member Holly Kitchell adding that she thought the Council and city employees should lead by example. For his part, Hamilton closed out his letter by saying that “We need to do something to get people to do what is best for all, and not ‘nobody can tell me what to do.’”