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Town of Blowing Rock Brings Back Indoor Mask Mandate Starting on Friday, August 27 at 5 p.m.

By Nathan Ham

In an emergency Blowing Rock Town Council meeting on Tuesday evening, the council voted unanimously to reinstitute a mask mandate for all indoor areas in Blowing Rock, beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday, August 27.  

There will be a two-week grace period before anyone will be written any citations. That grace period will end on Friday, September 10 at 5 p.m. 

This is the second local municipality to bring back required face coverings inside public buildings. Boone instituted a similar mask mandate on August 10. 

In addition to town mandates, a board of education mandate requires all Watauga County students to wear masks indoors. Ashe County’s school board instituted the same mask requirements for indoor areas at least for the first 30 days of school. Ashe County also requires everyone to wear a mask indoors at all county-owned facilities. In Avery County, the school board is leaving masks optional for students, teachers and staff members inside school buildings, but are “suggesting” that they wear masks inside school buildings.