Masks and businesses

Four page suicide letter.

Local business organizations take a stance on hamilton county's mask mandate.

And some feel it's having a positive impact on not just fighting the spread of the virus, but keeping the economy going too.

As health experts say wearing masks can save lives from covid-19, something you might not think about is the impact it might be having on the economy.

Chattanooga area chamber of commerce president, ceo christy gillenwater: "the facts are pretty clear around the importance of wearing masks and how that enables us to co-exist with the virus, but still enable the business environment and small businesses to remain open."

Hamilton county officials recently extended the mask mandate for the county.

A move that's getting collective support from numerous business organizations.

Chattanooga area chamber of commerce president, ceo christy gillenwater: "we feel that economic prosperity in our community is directly tied to people wearing masks."

Home builders association of greater chattanooga executive officer doug fisher: "the homebuilding industry makes up a significant part of virtually the entire us economy, but even focus more on the chattanooga area probably a little higher than average across the country."

The home builders association of greater chattanooga is one of multiple business groups supporting the mandate.

Home builders association of greater chattanooga executive officer doug fisher: "we don't look at the, the mask mandates so much you know it's all about government telling us what we've got to do.

It's more about keeping business going, keeping, keeping the industry moving and out economy going."

The chattanooga area chamber is a membership organization of over 2,000 businesses.

They surveyed their members about masks and found that 85 percent felt that masks build consumer confidence.

And 85 percent support the mask mandate.

Chattanooga area chamber of commerce president, ceo christy gillenwater: "that was a real strong message to us that we needed to stand up and come alongside the county health department and county mayor coppinger and let them know how important the mask mandate is to our small businesses."

County officials have extended