Kankakee Mayor Chasity Wells-Armstrong had a message to Riverview residents during her Sunday address to citizens of Kankakee when it comes to playing outside during a pandemic.
“You’re not special,” Mayor Wells-Armstrong said point-blank, “The Virus does not discriminate. The Virus is not going to say, ‘I’m gonna go over to the Schuyler Avenue Park, but I won’t come to Cobb Park’ that’s not how this works.”
The Mayor says she had to stop and interrupt a game herself at Schuyler Avenue Park this past Monday. When players ignored her, Police were brought in. The game quickly disbursed soon afterward.
Ironically enough, the NBA was the trailblazer among professional sports leagues to shut down due to Virus concerns.
“We are doing everything we can to keep this community safe,” said Mayor Wells-Armstrong. “We cannot have basketball games going on right now. When you talk about sports, basketball, tennis, its contact. You know when you’re playing sports you’re sweating, so you’re touching the ball, you’re touching the equipment, you rub your face, you wipe your forehead. You don’t even think about doing those things, but you do.”
Riverview residents have been pushing back against closures of both basketball courts and tennis courts in the area in recent weeks. Since those reports, the City of Kankakee has worked with Park District officials to get basketball and tennis courts shut down.
Rockford Park District and Peoria Park District announced one week ago they would remove basketball hoops from parks all together.
