Humason briefs Westfield City Council on reopening of City Hall

Sept. 8, 2020 | Dennis Hackett
dennis@thereminder.com

The Westfield City Council met remotely on Sept. 3.
Screen capture by Dennis Hackett

WESTFIELD – At the Sept. 3 Westfield City Council Meeting, Mayor Don Humason gave an update on reopening City Hall and discussed how the city is continuing to fight against the COVID pandemic.

As part of his report, Humason said that City Hall was already open to the public on an appointment basis.

“If there is something a resident of Westfield needs that they cannot do over the city website or some other means, they can call a department to request a meeting. And then the department staff would meet with that individual at city hall following social distancing protocols,” he said.

He added that city was in the best spot it has been in the fight against COVID and that he does not want to ruin that by changing procedure prematurely.

“The good news about Westfield right now is our COVID numbers are exceptionally low, the lowest they’ve ever been. So, we’re in a good position and the one thing we want to do is make that worse,” he said.

In order to accommodate social distancing guidelines, Humason also said that they have installed plexiglass in City Hall’s offices.

At the time of the meeting Mayor Humason said that he and other city officials were waiting to see how the virus develops in the fall before reopening City Hall to everyone.

“The goal is to wait through September to October to see what happens as people come back to school, as folks come back from vacation and holidays and go back to work, and see if there is a bump or a spike in COVID before opening City Hall,” he said.

After Humason discussed reopening the council chambers reopening for meetings in City Hall, Council President Brent Bean said he wanted to find some way to get public input at the meetings.

“This public participation piece is what we’re missing, outside of not understanding people, we need to find a way to get public input if we’re going to stick with this for the next few months. We really need to put our heads together and figure this one out,” he said.

During the meeting, the council also approved eight reappointments to several of the city’s boards and commissions, including four reappointments to the Historical Commission and three to the Conservation Commission.

Councilor Michael Burns then jumped in to applaud both commissions for their work in the city,
“I like to thank all of the volunteers for both commissions, especially the Conservation Commission. I spent a lot of nights listening to them and it’s unbelievable the amount of knowledge and what they put into it every week,” he said.

To end the meeting, the council held a brief moment of silence for former City Councilor Brian Hoose who recently passed away.

The Westfield City Council next meets on Sept. 10 to conduct the final interviews for the city’s vacant auditor position.

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