By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

Gone are the days when a person walked in the door of the local town hall, visited with neighbors while waiting in line, took care of an errand, and afterwards spent time chatting with the clerks.

Gone are the days when a person didn’t have to worry about touching an ink pen that someone else had held.

Because of the coronavirus, each town hall in the Lake Region has had to establish certain protocol to make things safer for customers and staff.

Bridgton Town Office reopened its doors on Monday, and Town Manager Robert Peabody felt everything went “pretty well.”

“We were concerned that we might be overwhelmed on the first day. It was fairly steady, but not overwhelming,” he said. “Most people wore masks, some didn’t but they were still paying attention to social distancing marked out on the floor.”

Peabody said there wasn’t a crush of business likely because staff handled payments via online and through the mail during the shutdown.

“It’s been brisk, but nothing out of the ordinary,” Peabody added.

At the Harrison Town Office, there is a routine in place for residents that includes using one ink pen for the duration of business and tossing that pen into a basket afterwards.

Harrison Town Manager Timothy Pellerin said the majority of residents have had positive comments about the new set-up although there have been a small percentage of nay-sayers who have shared his or her opinion with town employees. 

The town office opened to the public on May 18 after the staff spent two weeks readying the building for the re-opening.

“How it works is when you get into the office, there is an entrance and an exit. When you come in, you are asked to have a face covering,” Pellerin said, adding “I will get to what happens if people don’t have a face covering later.”

“We give them a pen. They sign in with a pen. They have them keep that pen,” he said. “We have people sign in for social tracking, and write the date and time they were here.”

“Then, they walk into a meeting room and stay six feet apart. They wait to be called to the window,” he said.

“We have two windows. There is Plexiglass between the customers and the clerks,” he said, adding that the air ventilation works so that air is pulled away and not shared between staff and customers.  

“The paperwork is handed in a basket and that basket is slid under the window,” he said.

“When you are done and you pay, there is a basket that says, ‘dirty pens’ and that is where you put your pen,” he said.

Luckily, folks haven’t had to complain about an unreasonably long line.

“Surprisingly, we haven’t had a time when there was a line out the door like a lot of towns have had. It has been steady, really steady,” Pellerin said.

The majority of business has been car registrations and boat registrations, he said.

Also, priority has been given to senior citizens two mornings a week. From 8 to 10 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday, the office is open for senior citizens only.

Many of the policies in place are ones outlined by Gov. Janet Mills executive order, he said, including what to do if people have a medical condition that prohibits them from wearing a mask. HIPPA law prevents staff from asking what the medical condition is.

“As far as masks, if you don’t have one, we provide one,” Pellerin said.

“Now, if you cannot wear a mask or don’t feel comfortable, you are told that the clerk will meet you out in the car. The clerk has mask and gloves. We do curbside service at the next earliest convenience. Then, the clerk gets disinfected,” he said.

“So far, it has worked very good,” he said.

“Most people are patient and understanding. So far, it has been pretty good. We’ve had a couple grumblings, people saying, ‘I don’t believe all this stuff exists,’” Pellerin said.

“We have a fair amount of compliments: People have said they feel very safe and secure with the set up. People have said it is very organized. People have said that they were afraid of going out in public but they felt safe in our town office,” he said. 

Pellerin said that for the most part, the compliments have outweighed the complaints.

“We have had a couple people come in and say, ‘I don’t have a mask and not wearing one.’ We have the right to protect our employees,” he said.

Like Pellerin, Naples Town Manager John Hawley stressed the importance of protecting the health of the staff and the community members.

“We get a handful of people who believe we are overdoing it and all these precautions are not necessary,” Hawley said. “Some people are adamant about it: They are not interested in wearing a mask. Even with those reactions, most people are in compliance. About 95% are coming in with a mask.”

“In reality none of us are happy about this. We are trying to do what needs to be done and stay safe until this is over with,” he said.

“We have a public obligation to keep people safe and to protect our employees,” Hawley said.

Like Harrison, the Naples town hall has been open since May. Meanwhile the towns of Casco and Bridgton opened their town office for counter service just this week, on Monday.

According to Hawley, the Town of Naples started doing counter service, being open to the public by appointment only, on May 12.

“It is going very well. You still have people who walk up to the door and think we are open. When they get there, they have the ability to call the number on the door, we can take them if we haven’t already booked a lot of appointments,” Hawley said.

The traffic flow is different from usual: People enter through the gym door and exit through the front door.

“For the most part, everyone is receptive and glad we can do business,” he said, of the public’s response.

For what kind of business are residents coming to their town office?

“Right now because it’s appointment-only, pretty much everything. The first weeks we were open, new car registrations were the biggest part of pie. The next biggest was boat registrations. That is something we are doing a lot of. The third part of pie is getting the annual Transfer Station and Bulky Waste facility sticker and dump coupons,” Hawley said.

One important word: Masks are required, he said.

As has been the case since March, many town-hall-related tasks can be done Online including re-registering a vehicle, purchasing a hunting or fishing license or applying for general assistance, or applying for a burn permit.

“We encourage people if you don’t need to come in—don’t. Do it Online. We realize that there is a certain percentage of the public who doesn’t like doing it on computer,” Hawley said.

“If they cannot figure it out, they can make an appointment to come in and someone will help them at the counter,” he said.