County slowly gets back to business City Halls and Courthouse still closed
BY BRUCE BRANUM
The Greenville Standard
Even though businesses deemed essential have been busy, such as grocery and hardware stores, with walk-in customers, others have closed their doors and opened only by appointment or offered drive through services.
Recently, with Governor Kay Ivey’s ‘Safer at Home’ announcement, certain businesses were allowed to have walk-in customers, such as barbershops, hair salons, and retail stores.
Restaurants were included in the announcement and Wentzell’s of Greenville announced they would reopen on Wednesday, May 13.
Curfews have been lifted by the City of Greenville and also Butler County, but both the Greenville City Hall and Butler County Courthouse will remain closed, at least, through Tuesday, May 26.
This is due to the number of increasing coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the county, which includes Greenville Mayor Dexter McLendon and his wife Janice.
Currently as of Monday, May 18, at 5 p.m. there were 285 confirmed cases and 10 deaths reported from Butler County.
At a special called emergency meeting of the Butler County Commission meeting last Friday at 9 a.m., the commissioners were informed that Regional Medical Center of Central Alabama was at full capacity.
They delayed opening the courthouse until further notice and are supposed to have another emergency meeting on Friday, May 22, at 9 a.m.
Friday evening at 7:05 p.m. WSFA reported there were a total of eight residents at Crowne Health Care, who tested positive for COVID-19, had died.
According to Crowne spokesperson Frances Coleman, they haven’t ruled on the exact cause of death for each resident.
There were 61 residents who tested positive; 35 were being treated at the facility and 26 were being treated in area hospitals.
In addition, 32 nursing employees tested positive for COVID-19. The Alabama National Guard was scheduled to sanitize and deep clean the nursing home on Monday, May 18.
Additional county resident testing for COVID-19 occurred this past Friday at the Butler County Health Department. The Alabama Department of Public Health said they completed 102 tests. Seven did not meet the criteria to be tested.
