It is not time yet, but when Haverhill City Hall reopens to the public and business returns to “almost” normal, it is going to look different.
Mayor James J. Fiorentini, a recent guest on WHAV’s morning program, and he indicated that City Hall painted a picture of the changed building.
“When we do reopen, it’ll be a different city hall. There will be some plexiglass barriers up in all the offices—things I took down 16 years ago to make it more customer friendly. Everybody will have a mask on. People who come to city hall will be asked to wear a mask. We’ll have masks at the door for those people who don’t have them. Our staff will all have removable gloves on. We’re going to ask that no more than two people be in an office at any given time. Our job is to serve the public, but we also need to keep our staff safe. We want to keep the public safe also. So, it will be a new city hall when we open. Sometime the week of the 18, depending on what the governor does with the state of emergency,” Fiorentini said.
Until the reopening and, as has been the case for more than a month, business with the city continues by telephone and online.
“We’re handling all of the business online and by telephone. If you really need to see us, call us, and we’ll make arrangements to take care of you. The business of government still has to go on even though it’s a pandemic. We have skeleton crews. We have people floating in and out. We’re doing everything we can to socially distance,” he said.
Fiorentini says the pandemic is trending down, and Gov. Charlie Baker is following the Trump Administrations’ guidelines of looking for a two-week drop in numbers before they’ll consider re-opening.