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A small town dragged its feet on COVID-19 mask mandates. Now residents are paying the price.
Andrea Ball, Jayme Fraser and Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY
© Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY NETWORK
A water tower gleams in the afternoon sun in Dodge City, Kansas.
DODGE CITY In the midst of a worsening pandemic, as coronavirus cases climbed, elected leaders in a former frontier town famous for its gunfights faced a choice.
They could pass a mask mandate at the urging of health experts, or reject the measure blasted by some as a violation of their personal freedoms.
The five commissioners of Dodge City, Kansas, a politically red cattle community of some 27,000 people, had resisted such measures all summer and into fall. Like other parts of rural and small-city America, Dodge City had mostly returned to normal after shaking off the pandemic’s first wave. ....

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