Morning Journal/Stephanie Ujhelyi
Hancock County Deputy Clerk Valerie Truax (left) administers the oath of office to an unmasked Eron Chek (right) Monday morning on the front steps of the Hancock County Courthouse, as Chek prepares to take office on Jan. 1 as the county’s first female county commissioner. For Chek, the decision to get sworn-in unmasked generated some controversy, as Judge Ronald E. Wilson reportedly refused to do so for his own safety. Several days before, Chek posted to her Facebook page that he didn’t “consider himself safe enough by wearing a mask or other PPE himself and using a plastic barrier between the two of us.” On the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which provided women the right to vote, Chek believed that “symbolically (she) would be representing the muzzling of the women in leadership if I allowed myself to be bullied this way,” thus Truax swore her in outside the building, as posted signage required entrants into the