Update:

FARGO (KFGO) – By emergency powers order, Mayor Tim Mahoney imposed a mask requirement Monday in Fargo, effective immediately.

It requires a face masks indoors at businesses and anywhere people are not able to properly social-distance. People living in the same household where those exposed to non-members of the household are included. The mandate does not have penalties for non-compliance.

The order allows for some exceptions, including children, younger than school age. Parents and guardians are urged to have children wear face masks, when and where possible.

Mayor Mahoney’s order is below –

Fargo Mayor Dr. Tim Mahoney has issued a Mayoral Mask Mandate within the City of Fargo utilizing emergency powers. This expands upon those orders declared on March 16, 2020 and subsequently extended by the Fargo City Commission on July 27, 2020. Several COVID-19 Trends and Developments in Cass County precipitated this mandate including, but not limited to:

Increased Hospitalizations
Increased Death Rate
Risk Level Escalation from Moderate (Yellow) to High (Orange)
High Level of Community Spread within Cass County
Contact Tracing Overwhelmed
Fargo Cass Public Health Board of Health Recommendation
Requests by 65 Pediatricians and the North Dakota Medical Association for a Mask Mandate
Increasingly Negative Impact on The City of Fargo’s Workforce (Infections + Close-Contacts)
Governor Burgum’s Recommendation for Local Control, as Necessary
The Mayoral Mask Mandate states: “Every person shall, within the city of Fargo, wear a face covering over the mouth and nose in all indoor environments where they are exposed to non-household members and where social distancing of six (6) feet or more cannot be assured and in all outdoor settings where there is exposure to non-household members, unless there exists ample space of six (6) feet or more to practice social distancing.
Although these measures are being mandated with the strongest possible recommendation, there is no penalty for non-compliance with this mandate.

This mandate shall take effect immediately and it shall remain in effect until the underlying state of emergency has ended unless it is sooner modified or terminated by the mayor or unless it is modified or terminated sooner by motion or resolution approved by the Fargo board of city commissioners.”

Mayor Mahoney remarked, “This is about science, not politics. This is our community’s health.”

Earlier…

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The mayor of North Dakota’s largest city says he would like to see a statewide mask mandate. Fargo Mayor Dr. Tim Mahoney has been largely supportive of the approach to the pandemic taken by Gov. Doug Burgum, who has left much of the policy making up to local leaders. But Mahoney says it would be difficult to enforce a mask mandate in Fargo if neighboring communities don’t follow suit and he cast the deciding vote against it at the last city commission meeting. He says “something dramatic” needs to be done in Fargo because positivity rates have been as high as 25% at some testing sites in the city and hospital capacity has dwindled down to critical levels.