Milford. The Milford Borough Council is targeting the summer for a possible return to in-person meetings.
The council has been holding its meetings over Zoom since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The council tabled a resolution to June 8, prior to the June 15 regular meeting, to decide.
“I’d love to go back in person, but the problem is the minute we put 40 or 50 people in borough hall, there’s going to be no chance that people are going to be able to maintain any distance,” council vice president Adriane Wendell said. “I believe we’re still going to have a percentage restriction on occupancy in a building.”
Borough solicitor Anthony Magnotta said some Center for Disease Control guidelines may still be in effect at that time, and that guidelines may change between now and June.
Councilwoman Maria Farrell suggested offering both options, such as taking requests for people who want to attend the meeting in person, but also make the meeting available over Zoom for those who do not.
Magnotta said hybrid meetings have been more problematic than totally in-person meetings, or totally virtual ones.
“The issue has been with the hybrid meetings because the technology isn’t available in the meeting room to allow everyone to hear what’s happening,” he said.
Dooley suggested St. Patrick’s Church Hall, which he said is about five times the size of borough hall.
“It’s hard enough sometimes at borough hall to hear what’s going on and hear what the conversation is,” Wendell said. “In St. Patrick’s Hall, it’s virtually impossible without microphones. So, anybody speaking would have to have a microphone in front of them because we have to do that for the garden club. I don’t know. I’m just not sure I’m ready to go back to in-person meetings, quite frankly.”