Since the pandemic began, the Greene County Community Center has been impacted but didn’t have to be closed for a long period of time.

Parks and Recreation Director Denny Hammen says they are continuing to follow the guidelines from the county, Iowa Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for mitigation efforts against COVID-19.

“We are still encouraging people to wear masks as they come into the building. As they are working out, they may remove their masks as long as they can social distance, they’re six feet. We are encouraging people to use every other machine, whether they are using the aerobics machines, and they spread themselves out when they are weightlifting, and of course always cleaning up after themselves.”

Hammen points out they don’t require masks to be worn and they haven’t had many issues with people following their mitigation efforts. He notes there weren’t too many programs that happened last year because of the pandemic, but they are having more programs coming back this year.

“We’ve seen the positivity rates go down in the county, we feel a little more confident now that we can offer more programming. We’re trying to keep the numbers small though with our programs. We’re being very cognizant of how we’re offering our programs and still keeping in mind that we would like to be able to help people social distance and be safe while they’re here.”

Hammen says there are a variety of fitness classes that have started up this spring and more youth programming is being added all the time.