Century taking down its hoops

On the phone meeting Monday night, Century Councilman James Smith said that he had heard that groups of people had been playing basketball at the Carver Community Center on Jefferson Street and at the park over the weekend, defying both the social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders.

“We need to have someone go to the Carver Community Center and McMurray Park to take down basketball hoops,” said Smith. “What's happening now is everybody from Atmore, Brewton and surrounding areas are coming here to play. They are not listening to social distancing, so that's a big problem. We've got a lot of elderly near the community center, we need to get someone to get goals taken down immediately. I'm hearing there's been 50 or more people there in the past three weeks.”

Councilman Luis Gomez said he had heard about the basketball playing going on but that there had been fights that broke out as well.

“I observed Sunday 100 people at the Community Center and that they got into a fight,” said Gomez. “So now word is out that they're shooting basketball on the weekends on Century. I want to know what we can do to keep the numbers (of those who become infected) down.”

Councilwoman Sandra McMurray Jackson said she thought that there had been one positive test in Century.

Discussion about local testing led to Councilwoman Ann Brooks asking about lobbying to get a testing sight near or in Century. Mayor Hawkins explained how to go about getting tested if someone thinks they may have been exposed. He also said Century Health and Rehabilitation is locked down with constant checks of the staff as they enter.

Town Planner Debbie Nickles said she thought the town needed to come out with a statement to let people know information about closings, testings and other actions to prevent the spread. Mayor Hawkins said since a resolution was passed at the meeting, that would be possible.

Discussion was geared toward closing public buildings, playgrounds and canceling reservations of any buildings in Century. The mayor said all reservations of buildings in the town were canceled immediately following the issuance of no large group meetings by the governor.

Council members then chose a time the following day that each would come to town hall to sign off on the meeting minutes they had just approved at the beginning of the meeting, observing the current guidelines in place for COVID-19.