In order to maintain recommended social distancing as a safety measure during the COVID-19 Pandemic, town governments have begun to utilize teleconference resources to conduct their regular meetings and workshops.

On Wednesday night, the Town of Fraser Board of Trustees conducted their first meeting, which included a ‘break-off’ executive session. Each meeting had separate dial-in instructions, requiring the Trustees to essentially call in to the regular meeting, open the regular meeting, approve the agenda and the last meeting’s minutes, motion to go into executive session, hang up, dial in to another call for the executive session, hang up and call back into the regular meeting. 

Town Manager Jeff Durbin anticipated high call volumes, since many municipalities across the country are now utilizing this option, many at the same time. While there were some challenges experienced by the Trustees, including repeated call-in efforts and a two-song loop of “hold” music that consisted of an odd mix of the Black Keys and Jim Croce, overall, they were able to accomplish what they needed to during the meeting. 

Durbin and Town Clerk Antoinette McVeigh pledged to continue to investigate options in search of a platform that allows more robust remote meeting engagement. They hope to have a new option in place in time for the April 1 meeting.

The towns of Winter Park and Granby will also begin utilizing teleconferencing methods for their regular meetings and workshops over the next week. Information on how to dial-in to the public meetings is available on their websites.