Editor’s Note: Previous stories have been written about states of emergency in Greenfield, Orange, Montague and Leyden.
Most, if not all, Franklin County and North Quabbin towns have declared states of emergency in attempts to reduce exposure to and transmission of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus.
This has resulted in a widespread temporary closure of libraries, town halls and offices. Residents are encouraged to use their town’s website to conduct as much business as possible.
“These measures are enacted to protect public health and safety,” reads a notice from the Deerfield Selectboard, which is also the town’s Board of Health. “They come following careful consideration of the impact on accessibility to certain programs and services to residents, businesses and institutions, as well as the ability of the town of Deerfield to conduct essential business.”
The Deerfield Selectboard noted its emergency measures extend to inspection services, too. The building and electrical inspectors will work on an emergency basis and will otherwise work remotely, as will the health agent and building commissioner. Construction and construction-related activities scheduled for any municipal facility may proceed with the approval of Town Administrator Kayce Warren and the health agent.
In Northfield, the Selectboard and Board of Health held an emergency meeting on Monday evening to declare the state of emergency. As such, the Town Hall — including the Police Department and Senior Center — as well as Dickinson Memorial Library, the Highway Department, the Fire Department and the EMS building are only open to essential personnel for the next three weeks.
Likewise, Shelburne Selectboard Chair Matthew Marchese issued a notice Monday about the town’s own state of emergency.
“This action allows the town, in part, to create and assemble the necessary emergency response task forces and to seek reimbursement for any costs incurred by the town related to the pandemic,” Marchese wrote. Acting on a recommendation of the Shelburne’s emergency management personnel, the Selectboard authorized the creation of an Emergency Management Task Force that will continually provide updated information regarding COVID-19 as well as make recommendations to the Selectboard for consideration.
Though all town-owned buildings are closed to public access, Marchese said residents should “consider the town still ‘open for business.’”
“Town employees will report to work to continue to assist the public via telephone, email and the U.S. postal service correspondence until further notice,” Marchese wrote. “A large mail carrier box has been placed in the foyer of Town Hall. There is also a locked drop box available for non-cash payments or confidential materials.”
All public meetings and hearings are closed to the public to the extent allowed by law and some meetings may be continued, postponed and/or reformatted to conference calls as technology allows.
Towns are also attempting to limit the exchange of documents by hand unless necessary. They have encouraged the public to submit requests and conduct business online whenever possible. Also, transfer station operations will limit contact between the public and employees. Customers are asked to minimize trips, organize items for disposal prior to visiting the facility and to stay the suggested 6 feet from one another.
On March 12, Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order aimed at enabling public bodies to carry out their responsibilities while adhering to what is called social distancing, which is the deliberate increase of physical space between people. According to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, this order relieves public bodies from the Open Meeting Law requirement that meetings be conducted in a place that is “open and physically accessible to the public, provided that the public body makes provision to ensure public access to the deliberations of the public body through adequate, alternative means.”
“According to the Attorney General’s Division of Open Government, which is charged with enforcing the law, ‘adequate, alternative means’ may include, without limitation, providing public access through telephone, internet, or satellite enabled audio or video conferencing or any other technology that enables the public to clearly follow the proceedings of the public body in real time,” the Massachusetts Municipal Association’s website reads. “A municipal public body that, for reasons of economic hardship and despite best efforts is unable to provide alternative means of public access in real time, may instead post on its municipal website a full and complete transcript, recording, or other comprehensive record of the proceedings as soon as practicable afterwards.”
In Shelburne’s case, public meetings have been suspended with the exception of the Selectboard, Emergency Management Task Force and Board of Health. Detailed accounts of those meetings will be recorded and posted to the town’s website.
Members of a public body may participate in a meeting remotely, and the Open Meeting Law’s requirement that a quorum of the body and the chair be physically present at the meeting location is suspended.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.