PROSPERITY — Prosperity will not host Prosperity Hoppin’ this year due to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) — Mayor Derek Underwood said the festival will return in 2021.
Town Administrator Karen Livingston said, initially, they were going to partner with National Night Out for a July date; however, she said National Night Out was moved to October.
“We have Spooktacular in October, we could partner with Spooktacular, but that is a big event by itself,” she said.
Lisa Senn, town attorney, said she has had discussions, in regards to town events, with other municipal attorneys. The discussions were about potential liability for inviting large groups of people to any event, before the coronavirus is “stamped out” or a cure or viable treatment has been created.
“If you want to do this, most of the cities and towns are indicating that you keep it closed to all but town citizens — so you are not inviting others from outside the community, what they are suggesting. They are also suggesting you have volunteers or hire people that will be constantly wiping things down that will get touched a lot and that you purchase extraordinary liability insurance, should anybody get sick because they were invited to a large gathering — if the pandemic has not been declared over,” Senn said if the town decided to hold the festival. “Most municipal attorneys are advising towns and cities not go forward with anything concrete until August, at the earliest, even then its got to be a tentative date.”
Councilman Chad Hawkins said he did not think they needed to move forward with any plans until novel coronavirus was declared gone, to which council agreed. The decision was then made to not have Prosperity Hoppin’ in 2020.
Livingston said they’ve already refunded all the vendor money, and she has spoken with those who were sponsoring this year’s festival.
“They (sponsors) told us just to hold onto the money,” she said.
In other businesses, the Town of Prosperity will have 17 trees donated through an Invasive Species Grant from Clemson University and the South Carolina Forestry Commission.
According to Hawkins, they are doing this grant to try and cut down trees like the Bradford pear, which are considered an invasive species. The 17 trees will be used to replace those Brandford pear trees.
“The Forestry Commission is going to donate 17 trees to be planted around the parks, and around town,” Hawkins said. “The intent is to cut down those Brandford pears and replace them with these 17 trees.”
The new trees will be planted in various locations, to include the walking track, Dixie Youth Field and other locations.
Other business:
• The town approved an intergovernmental agreement between the town and Newberry County for recreation funding.