CITY BASKETBALL HOOPS REINSTALLED

City of Allentown Department of Parks & Recreation crews, with a little assistance from Mayor Ray O’Connell, began reinstalling 51 basketball hoops at city parks and playgrounds this afternoon. The hoops were removed almost one year ago to encourage compliance with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home order at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We closed our facilities to save lives,” said O’Connell. “But we have seen high school teams play basketball indoors with masks this winter and college and professional teams have been playing without masks with relatively few problems considering. It’s time to give our kids an opportunity to play outdoors.”

The first hoops were reinstalled at Valania Park. It is expected to take at least through the end of the week to get them all back up.