BY KEN KRALL, WXPR

RHINELANDER – About two dozen citizens gathered at the entrance of the Oneida County Law Enforcement Center in Rhinelander Wednesday to protest Northwoods sheriffs refusing to enforce a face mask executive order.

Gov. Evers set a mask wearing mandate last Thursday to help curb the rise of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin. Sheriff

WXPR photo

s in Oneida, Vilas, Forest, Langlade, Lincoln and Iron counties, as well as some local police chiefs said they wouldn’t enforce the order. Many cited lack of resources, others said because of an earlier Supreme Court ruling on an executive order, this order was probably not legal.

One of the protesters Wednesday was Sarah Juon of Rhinelander. She wrote Letters to the Editor for local print media and Facebook. She asked Oneida County Sheriff Grady Hartman to enforce the mask requirement.

“Governor Evers made this mandate. That’s a standard for all of us in the state to try to be respectful of other people and mask up and try to make the COVID-19 (trend) flatten. Our cases are rising here and we are one of the hot spots,” Juon said.

Juon asked Hartman to step up and lead on this issue.

Legislative Republicans are considering returning to Madison from break to see if they should challenge Evers’ order. His ‘Safer-At-Home’ order was overturned by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in May.