Town employees, residents came through in pandemic, McKenna says

COVID-19 may have represented the worst of times in 2020, but Supervisor Bill McKenna said he enters the new year knowing the pandemic brought out the best in people.

McKenna made the observation during a telephone interview Thursday, Dec. 31. Not only did town employees step up to keep municipal business operating smoothly, he said, but they found ways to help residents help one another.

“The departments all functioned well, they functioned under pressure, and they got the job done,” he said. “We had people coming up from the city to get marriage licenses. ... We didn’t go over our budget, we conserved. It worked perfectly.”

McKenna added that among the efforts to keep residents safe was a program that had volunteers taking care of residents’ shopping needs.

“That was an interesting task,” he said. “I really enjoyed it and it was just a great, great group of people. A few of them have even reached out to me recently and said (they) were going to start that again. There was some word about Project Resilience starting up and food be

ing an issue and they would be happy to help.”

Among the issues that started in 2020 and expected to continue into the new year is the dumping of dirt laced with construction and demolition debris on a Church Road property. McKenna said the property owners have been willing to cooperate with efforts to test for contamination and are deciding what action to take on removing the illegal material.

“I think what we’re talking about is to dig up any of the construction debris and get that out of there ... and possibly put a retaining wall in there and cut down the steepness of it so that it’s not a safety hazard,” he said. “If they decide

to leave any of the fill, we make sure it’s certified that it’s clean.”

Board members are working to draft a law that would require a permit before bringing fill onto properties, according to McKenna.

“It would help ensure that residents don’t fear what we had happen on Church Road,” he said.

McKenna also said he would like to move forward with longplanned renovations to the Comeau municipal building. The renovations are expected to include the addition of about 2,000 square feet that would include a basement and updates to existing offices to improve handicapped access. improvements.

“We were really close to moving forward with that (in 2020) and going out for bonding,” he said. “I would like to

finalize those plans and move forward. That would have been one of the things that would have been helpful to have that building. With the COVID, it didn’t allow us to spread out and just all around it’s going to make the building more user friendly.”

Among problems that are expected to continue will be keeping the Big Deep and Little Deep swimming holes clean. The issue was complicated by COVID-19 during 2020 when visitors would not practice social distancing. By closing the sites, however, there was an improvement in sanitary conditions.

“The shutting down of it kept it clean so that we didn’t have to go in there and clean up a mess every week ... but that’s not a solution,” McKenna said. “For me, they have to be solutions that don’t require $50,000 worth of lifeguards.”