(File Photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Town Offices & City Halls

Tisdale Town Office preparing to open to public soon, Melfort City Hall holding off

May 2, 2020 | 10:00 AM

The Town Office in Tisdale has started planning to re-open to the public.

Phase One of the Reopen Saskatchewan Plan begins on Monday, May 4 but Tisdale’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Brad Hvidston said they felt they slotted in better in Phase Two which begins Tuesday, May 19.

“We’re just taking the recommendations of the province and running with that,” he said. “We’ll try to maintain our distancing and try and keep everybody as safe as possible.”

Hvidston added that they are going to put precautions in place for when they do reopen to the public.

“Here at our town office, we’ll be putting up the Plexiglas [barriers] at the front counter just to protect the workers,” Hvidston told northeastNOW. “And try to keep the virus out of our staff anyway, the best we can.”

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No staff had been laid off by the Town of Tisdale according to Hvidston, but they did delay in bringing back seasonal staff.

Hvidston said they will continue to follow the government protocols and continue to watch how things progress over the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the City of Melfort has decided to wait even longer to open their City Hall back up to the public.

“We have no immediate plans to reopen City Hall until likely Phase Four of the reopening plan,” said Director of Development Planning and Community Relations Brent Lutz. “But all staff will be coming back to work full-time at City Hall and we will continue to provide contact free services.”

Since City Hall closed to the public early in the State of Emergency, calls to the office were being fielded from 9 a.m. to noon, Lutz said now they will answer inquiries from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. now.

While City Hall is holding off opening for a while still, other services in Melfort are opening very soon. The Melfort Regional Landfill will begin operating six days a week, starting on Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.. There will be no cash transactions being made and patrons can use the debit tap option. Also opening in the coming days will be the compost site in Melfort. That will run from Thursday to Saturday this year according to Lutz from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Lutz also added that public parks including playgrounds continue to be closed to the public during this time.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6