GREENFIELD — On Friday, Gov. Charlie Baker announced an emergency order temporarily modifying the Open Meeting Law to allow state and local government officials to hold a public meeting via telephone conference, on-line meeting services, social media or other internet streaming methods, in an effort to limit the spread of Coronavirus.

According a press release from Baker’s office, the temporary Open Meeting Law modification modifies a requirement that a quorum of members be physically present at a public meeting, provided other means of communication and access are available for remote participation. This will allow state and local government entities to carry out essential functions and operations during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

“The temporary modification is great because it allows for municipal business and committees to continue for now,” Greenfield City Clerk Kathryn Scott said Friday.

Scott said there had already been ongoing conversations around whether town agencies should meet, and the modification will likely prove beneficial. During this period, members may all participate by remote or virtual means. The change pertains only to the exemption of an in-person quorum.

All other Open Meeting Law requirements about postings, including having a total quorum, are still in effect. The order is applicable to meetings of public bodies, including: commissions, boards and committees that engage in policy making at the state and local level. It does not apply to Town Meetings or judicial and quasi-judicial hearings.

Scott said that while this temporary change will allow a meeting to continue for essential reasons, it’s worth noting that if a business item before a particular board was deemed non-essential there was always the ability to postpone or cancel a meeting. At this time, the city is looking into establishing a means of teleconference for town officials.

The public needs to be able to access the meeting and listen in, too, Scott noted. This means a meeting cannot be held within a closed conference call or video-chat session, and must be streamed for public access. At this time, it is unclear how Greenfield, and other county towns, will ultimately choose to hold teleconference or video-chat meetings for public viewing.

Deerfield Administrative Assistant Patricia Kroll Friday said while Deerfield uses Frontier Community Access Television to broadcast meetings live on channel 15, there is not a system in place to film and broadcast a meeting if board or committees members are not in the same room.

Kroll said that, as of Friday afternoon, meetings were still scheduled. This could change, though, as the Selectboard and town administrator were holding a meeting that afternoon about whether to cancel certain town meetings.

“It happens that we just passed a remote access policy and we were all cued up for this anyway,” Orange Selectboard Vice Chair and Board of Health member Jane Peirce said of the Open Meeting Law amendment.

On Thursday, Orange declared a state of emergency in its town out of precaution, though no cases have been confirmed in the town or county. According to Peirce, by declaring a state of emergency, the town can limit public meetings and prevent them from physically attending any essential government meetings. She said the town would provide a phone number for residents to call in and provide remote comment and participate in citizen’s concerns portions of the meeting.

“We intend to do everything we can so that people know what we are doing and business continues as usual,” Peirce said.

Athol Orange Television regularly records meetings for public viewing when members get together, but Peirce said she did not know if the television service was able to stream a video-chat conference where members participate from remote locations for public viewing.

Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.