The Saugerties Town Board has been holding “hybrid” meetings, with the board members and some members of the public meeting live at the Senior Center, while at the same time making the meeting available through Cisco Go To Meeting.
The town board practice of hybrid meetings may change, as Covid-19 seems heading for a second spike, Supervisor Fred Costello said at the opening of the regular board meeting on November 18. If the rate of infection in this area exceeds three percent, it will be necessary to close the building again and hold all meetings via Cisco, he said.
An announcement of a change in the meeting format would be coming soon, Costello said.
In the meantime, “we will take some of the best practices and the lessons that we learned in the first spike and try to do our best to apply them in a meaningful way to keep our residents safe and to keep our employees safe at town hall,” Costello said.
As colder weather drives people indoors, “the opportunity for spread will increase.” While “we have had some success we can all be proud of, this battle is not over. There’s good news on the horizon, but we have to get there before we can enjoy that good news.”