WINDHAM – If the town office opened for business on Fridays, as was discussed at Tuesday’s Windham Town Council meeting, it would either involve reduced daily service, or $80,000 to $170,000 in additional annual costs, according to Town Manager Tony Plante.
“I don’t want to give the impression to you or to the public that we can magically go back to five days a week and not have it impact anything,” Plante said. “If we’re not prepared to staff up to provide the coverage that provides the responsiveness that we were providing to the public before, I’m not going to use that as an excuse to provide, excuse me, crappy service.”
Prior to July 2010, the town office was open five days a week. But due to declining revenues caused by the 2008 economic crisis, the town cut operating hours from 47.5 hours to 34 hours per week, and started closing on Fridays. A year later, the town office began to open an hour earlier, at 7 a.m., increasing weekly operations to 38 hours.
The majority of the cuts in the wake of the economic crisis affected the town’s administrative assistants and customer service staff, according to Plante. If the town was to return administrative support and customer service staffing to the pre-July 2010 levels, it would need to fund 73 new staff hours per week for approximately $80,000 per year. The town would have to fund new health insurance and retirement costs, as well, he said.
If town officials returned total office hours to the pre-July 2010 levels, Plante said, it would cost about $170,000 in wages for 136 additional hours per week.
At the meeting, Councilor Bob Muir said that he had spoken with constituents who wanted the town office open five days a week.
“It just seems as though there should be some way that we can provide that to them without having it cost an arm and a leg,” Muir said.
Plante said that he agreed that the town office should be open every weekday.
“I think we should be open on Fridays,” Plante said, “but I have to recognize that there’s some balancing that has to go on there.”
“What happens if you go to five days with the same staffing you’ve got?” Muir asked Plante.
“We’re going to end up short staffed in a number of places,” Plante said.
“That might be the people’s choice, if they want it open five days a week,” Muir said. “That may be the best we can do.”
The council ought to engage with the public on the office-hours issue, Muir said.
“We’ve got to let people know, ‘If this is what you want, then we can give you five days, but you know, you might have to wait in line,’” Muir said.
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