MADISON, Wis. — Tuesday is a day UW Madison student Vicki Dombeck has been looking forward to for weeks.
“I’m just super excited and just ready to get in there and have a really good time,” said Dombeck.
However, the top ten showdown at the Kohl Center between the Wisconsin Badgers and Purdue Boilermakers isn’t the only reason why folks in Madison have been anticipating March 1. Tuesday, Dane County’s mask mandate expired, which gave business leaders a reason to anticipate this date.
Zach Brandon, the president of the Madison Area Chamber of Commerce, said the group did its own research on masking and found some interesting results.
While around half of businesses said they wanted to see the mandate end, nearly three-quarters said they believed the mandate harmed their bottom line.
“It was 71 percent who said the mask mandate negatively impacted their business. So even those that supported it still were acknowledging there was a negative impact,” Brandon said.
However, Brandon does not think all businesses should just drop their mask rules. Instead, he wants each group to now be able to make their own decision.
For example, Brandon would be in favor of Colectivo Coffee on State Street’s decision, which is to keep their employees masked up for now.
Aaron Cantrel, the store’s general manager, explained why.
“We had a couple of positive cases throughout the winter and it didn’t spread throughout the store. We never had other infections happen and I really credit the masks for that because we really work in close quarters,” he said.
With fingers crossed, the Madison community enters March 2022 maskless and residents hope the madness stays on the court this year.
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