Acting City Manager James Wieprecht told the Town Council, at their July works session, that the town’s Police Department lobby has been opened for public access. However, he said, individuals entering the facility are still required to wear face coverings as a result.

Regarding the reoccupation of Town Hall when the renovations are completed, Wieprecht said, "We're having some conversations at the staff level now (and) planning for when we do move back into the building here."

He said there will be "some virus-related protocols that we're going to enact, to make sure that we keep everybody safe when we have more people back into the building."

When asked if the hall, particularly the council chambers, would be available for in-person public meetings again, the acting city manager stated that he didn't think town staff has the ability to establish social distancing (of six feet apart) from each other very easily in the council chambers. "I would not count on that (public accessible meetings in the council chambers)," he said.

Wieprecht noted that, in order to allow for social distancing, "We may be able to develop a plan to move some things around up there and free up a little more space," but he could not assure that even that might provide sufficient distancing between meeting attendees "unless you opted to go with a mask protocol."

Councilman Joe Vigliotti asked his fellow council members if the board would consider continuing to live stream town meetings beyond that which has necessitated by COVID epidemic.

Vigliotti said, "I know there's been some thought about whether or not we could live stream these meetings once we do begin meeting in person again" adding that he has noticed that, since the town initiated live streaming of the meetings, more people have been saying they've been paying more attention to town business as a result of watching the streamed meetings.

Mayor Wantz said that it made sense to continue to stream the town meetings, even after the COVID epidemic subsides.

Wantz stated, "I believe IT (those involved in information technology) had purchased a camera that would make it easier for them to do that (continue to stream) with the intention of, in the future, doing so."

"I think we're going to have to continue with doing that in the future, since we've obviously shown we were able to," he said adding, "It's probably best we continue with that."