Shelby City Council moves meeting amid rising Covid cases

Star - 9/24/2021

Sep. 24—After public health officials held a press conference to announce alarming numbers of COVID-19 cases in Cleveland County, Shelby City Council has decided to move its next meeting to a larger venue to allow for social distancing.

Shelby Mayor Stan Anthony brought up the idea in the final minutes of City Council's Monday night meeting.

He was one of several community leaders who attended the press conference earlier that day.

He called the data, and the reality behind the numbers, "very scary."

"Sadly, as we all know the numbers in our county are very, very bad," he said. "There have been a lot of deaths. The hospital is overrun."

He proposed moving next month's meeting to the Don Gibson Theatre on Washington Street or going back to virtual meetings on Zoom as they did for part of 2020.

Several Council members echoed Anthony's concern, speaking of losing loved ones and friends to the virus.

"If you don't care about yourself, about getting the shots, care about the ones you're giving it to. You could be carrying it and not even know it," said Councilman David White.

After the discussion, White and David Causby voted to go back to virtual meetings. Violet Arth, Andrew Hopper Sr., Charles Webber and Eric Hendrick voted in favor of moving to the Gibson Theatre.

After the vote, Anthony said October's meeting would be held in the larger space.

Ahead of the vote, Anthony said he was happy to see council members wearing masks at the meeting, some of whom only pulled them down to speak. He said they need to go one step further and encourage anyone who will listen to get vaccinated.

"I'm not going to be afraid to say that. We need to get people in our community vaccinated," Anthony said. "I believe it's the only way we're going to get out of this situation is for people to get vaccinated... This is a tough time for us all."

Diane Turbyfill can be reached at 704-669-3334 and dturbyfill@shelbystar.com.

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