ROCHESTER — The Rochester Select Board approved a mask mandate at the town’s senior center at a Monday, Dec. 20 meeting after the board of directors for the Rochester Council on Aging voted to request the rule.

Pauline Munroe, President of the COA Board of Directors, said that they were requesting the change in policy because of the recent surge in new covid cases in the area.

“We were hoping that a mask mandate would help control the situation,” she said.

The Select Board was initially divided on the issue, with members Paul Ciaburri and Bradford Morse both voicing their opposition to mandates broadly.

“I just don’t like the idea of a mandate,” said Ciaburri. “When you mandate something, you make people not want to do it. A mandate should be the last resort.”

But Town Counsel Blair Bailey reminded them that since the beginning of the pandemic, the Select Board had agreed to let the COA Board of Directors make decisions for the senior center regarding health practices.

Select Board Member Woody Hartley also voiced his support for the measure.

“I don’t want to wait until we’ve lost someone [to pass a mandate],” he said.

The Select Board also heard from an audience member who identified herself as Karen Thomas of Rochester and spoke against the mandate, calling it ineffective and a violation of people’s constitutional rights.

“Masks don’t work,” she said.

Hartley referred to Thomas’s comments as “inappropriate” and contested that she had been “picking and choosing” the data she was quoting, in opposition to the current prevailing medical opinions.

After a short discussion, the Select Board voted unanimously to pass the measure.