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Town Hall has been closed to the public since April 1 due to COVID-19. Staff has been working at Town Hall and has been finding innovative ways to serve our customers that cannot complete their business by mail, online, or over the phone.
On June 16th the Board of Selectmen met with Town Hall employees (Police and Office Staff) and our Emergency Management Director to talk about how we open back up to the public and when.
The biggest concern identified was the lobby. Our customer service lobby is 156 square feet. Because of ADA requirements we are unable to relocate the entrance to create a larger lobby; we cannot enlarge the existing lobby because of the location of the furnace and locations of support columns. Due to the size of the lobby we cannot properly accommodate more than one or two people at a time.
The other issue identified is air quality. There is no HVAC system at Town Hall; Town Hall is heated by two forced hot air furnaces and cooled by three window air conditioning units. We are actively researching options to improve air quality - either an air handler to draw air direct from the outdoors or UV lights to install in the duct work. Within the lobby area there is poor fresh air exchange and the Selectmen have agreed we cannot in good faith open up (even by appointment) and invite customers into that atmosphere.
We also have a Request for Proposal to obtain estimates to add a door for the Police Department and resize the customer service window and add a "sneeze guard".
Once we have resolved the air quality issue and modified the customer service window we will open by appointment only.
We appreciate the patience of our residents and we hope this explanation adequately addresses the reasons behind the Selectmen's decision to remain closed at this time.