By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — An emergency meeting was held on Monday evening to outline a plan in the Town of Naples that many municipalities in Maine are following: Shutting the town hall to the pubic, and conducting town business without physical contact.

This measure to keep the Coronavirus (COVID-19) from spreading will impact everything from how people usually register a vehicle to paying the property tax bills that are due next month.

All the board and committee meetings have been taken off the calendar for the next two weeks.

This series of decisions, supported by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), was duplicated in the Town of Casco, where meetings will not resume until April and a locked drop box will become the means of passing paperwork and payments to the town office.

In the Lake Region, across the United States, the situation has been changing almost hourly, Naples Town Manager John Hawley said.

“A comment was circulated today that holds true in most situations, ‘Everything before a pandemic is seen as overreacting while everything completed after a pandemic is seen as inadequate,’ ” Hawley said.

“We can only do everything in our power to protect the health and wellbeing of all our people. I would rather be criticized for overreacting than explain why we were inadequate. We are being directed to do everything we can to prevent the spread of this virus over the next 15 days,” he said.

On Monday, the Naples Board of Selectmen voted to support the plan of action that Hawley outlined, and to reassess the situation via e-mails in about a week.

Essentially, all town-owned buildings are closed to the public. The gym is closed, postponing all recreational activities held there. The Naples Fire Station building is closed to the public. The Before and Aftercare school program stopped service on Monday, which coincided with the first day of cancelled classes for children in the school district.

“The town office will close to public admittance.

Staff will continue to report to the office and offer assistance to residents remotely unless directed otherwise, at which time, key officials will work from home,” Hawley said.

“The public will be encouraged to call the office to conduct business. When calling, staff will assist folk with online services to the greatest extent possible,” he said.

The Town of Naples website has been updated to provide the links people might need access to such as hunting and fishing licenses, dog registrations, tax payments, assessing exemptions, trailer and boat registrations — to name a few.

Any employees who are “not comfortable coming to work while we are open, or if they are sick, will be permitted to stay home and can use accrued benefit time,” Hawley said. “If we are ordered into quarantine, staff will be paid for that time without having to use employee benefit time.”

A drop box has already been placed near the front door outside the town office. People can use that to drop off paperwork like the General Assistance application or a check written for property taxes.

People who need to register a vehicle can call the town hall and make an appointment to fill out the paperwork, make a payment and receive the license plate decals. And, it can all be done while practicing the recommended distance of three feet.

The Town of Naples is anticipating tax payments might be affected although people are encouraged to pay taxes via the U.S. postal service or the drop box.

“With property taxes coming due in April, there is a the risk that tax payments will be delayed. But, with our healthy fund balance, we will be okay with our Designated Fund Balance to maintain services for a while,” Hawley said.

Additionally, business owners who need a liquor license approval in the next two weeks will be just fine. State law says the liquor license will still be valid if no action is made on the part of the town.

On Tuesday, Hawley commented on people’s reactions during Day One that the town hall was closed to the public.

“We do have a camera. We have seen quite a bit of foot traffic, people getting out of their cars and seeing the note on the door,” he said, adding the phones were not ringing off the hook.

“The phone traffic is an average day for us, he said.

“We’re here — until we are directed by a higher authority to do something different,” he said.

During the emergency meeting, Chairman Jim Grattelo said “This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

“Two weeks. This is going to go on for six or eight weeks. I don’t have any issues with having an e-mail with board weighing in on” when board meetings will be reestablished, he said.

“I don’t think anyone in the state is going to fault us for trying to run the government from a distance,” Grattelo said.