EDITOR'S NOTE - Click HERE for the guidelines for the city to open offices back up to the public.

 

When it comes to the Bridgeport Municipal Building, things went back to normal Monday. The normalcy came in the form of staffing.

 

“We are full staffed,” said City Manager Randy Wetmore. “This week, we are working to get everyone back and make sure the plans we have will work for us to reopen everything to the community and residents will for them and for our staff.”

 

As for that reopening date, Wetmore said it is expected to take place this coming Monday, June 1. He said the lobby to the Municipal Complex, offices at Bridgeport Parks and Recreation will also be open as well as an arrangement to allow individuals to acquire materials from the Bridgeport Public Library.

“Monday, we hope, is the first step to being back to what could be considered pretty functional,” said Wetmore.

 

A full list of guidelines should be available as early as today and no later than by Friday, said Wetmore. While business should be available typical of many re-openings, it will not be the same. Wetmore said one of the places still being worked on for a public opening time is the library.

 

“The library building itself won’t open. People will be able to email, call and make contact in ways to get up to, I believe, 10 items,” said Wetmore. “Then our staff will collect those items and give you a time when they’ll be available.”

 

Wetmore said the items will be bagged and placed in the area inside the first sliding door. Names of the individual for whom the items are for will be placed on the bags.

 

“We’re not opening up that building until we get more comfortable with it. That is a little more tough and (Library Director) Sharon (Saye) will be doing more investigating,” said Wetmore. “We’re just worried about safety.”

 

Wetmore said there will be very detailed guidelines for the library released that may vary from the comments he made here as he was going off memory. He said the details will listed for all city areas, and that getting to this point did not happen haphazardly or in fast fashion.

 

“We started looking at this in latter part of April and first part of May that we’re going to get people back and have all the crews back,” said Wetmore. “We started looking at ways to make it safe and spent a lot of days doing our best to make it as safe as possible.”

 

Wetmore said input and ideas were taken from staff. He pointed to members of the Parks and Recreation Department who often must pick up trash and other discarded items, coming up with a way to protect themselves from possible exposure to the Coronavirus on those items.

 

“They created a portable hand washing unit on the Parks trucks. They came up with that idea on their own,” said Wetmore. “It works and it makes them feel more comfortable picking up trash and gosh who else know what they pick up.”

 

Sanitizer will be available, as will masks. Wetmore said employees can wear them if they want to or as needed.

 

Customers coming into the building, such as those for water billing, will see one person allowed at each window with a clearly marked space six feet behind that individual for the next person to be served.

 

“It’s nothing out of the norm people are seeing right now, but it’s different from how we’ve always interacted with customers,” said Wetmore. “It’s just part of the time we’ve put in, and a business owner can relate, to thinking about details you’ve never had to think of before. There are some may operational things we’ve gone through that just never had to be considered before.

 

“At the same time, we know the entire situation can change tomorrow so we have to keep this plan fluid and up to date,” he continued. “The end goal is to keep our staff and the citizens we deal with safe. We think we have the best possible approach, but we’ll continue to figure things out.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows the Bridgeport Municipal Complex, while City Manager Randy Wetmore is shown below.