Windham town hall offices shifting to four-day work week

By Ed Pierce

Starting June 21, Windham Town Hall employees will be shifting to a four-day work week.

Following a discussion during a Windham Town Council workshop earlier this month, Windham Town Manager Barry Tibbetts consulted department heads and other town hall staff and asked them how to best accommodate residents while creating a competitive work/life balance for employees.

Employees of the Windham Town Clerk's office will adapt 
to a new work schedule soon as Town Hall workers will be
shifting to a new four-day work schedule starting June 21.
PHOTO BY LINDA MORRELL

Tibbetts said other nearby communities have adopted four-day work week schedules and currently having a number of municipal vacancies, Windham needs to be as competitive as possible to attract and retain workers. During the previous workshop, several councilors expressed concerns about town hall offices being closed on Fridays and those seeking services having to wait until Monday for employees to be available.

“To be competitive, we need to be similar to towns around us yet be accessible for services,” Tibbetts told town council members during a meeting on Tuesday night.

According to Tibbetts, department heads told him that the greatest demand for town hall services is earlier in the day and not in the late afternoon and evening. He said many services available at town hall can also be found easily and accomplished online.

Because the town charter grants him the authority to determine operational hours for employees, Tibbetts said he’s willing to try shifting to a four-day work week for town hall staff on a six-month trial basis.

“After review of the proposed operational times, discussions with staff at multiple levels, comparisons with similar municipalities, I have made the decision to amend the operational open times for the town,” Tibbetts said.

The new hours effective June 21 will be 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursdays, and closed on Fridays.

“This date coincides with the time-recording system for payroll. This change does not affect the total hours worked; those remain the same. I asked staff to provide what they thought were the best times for providing services to the public with a four-day work week schedule,” Tibbetts said. “The majority of the staff felt the following time, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., worked best for the public with an extended day. The town allows for numerous opportunities on-line to re-register vehicles, smaller recreational vehicles, trailers, pets, hunting & fishing licenses, recreational programming, voting registration, request vital records, and taxes.”

He said advances in technology opportunities further enhance the convenience of reaching the town hall and that if a resident cannot make the time frame of hours, a friend or relative can process a re-registration for them or they can use mail.

With the change, public entry to municipal offices on Fridays will not be available, excluding the gym at town hall, which has a separate access point.

In a memo to councilors, Tibbetts pointed out that some senior level and other staff members may work on Fridays to process necessary filings as needed, but public access to municipal offices will be closed.

“Fire, Police and Public Works currently work a variable schedule with no major impacts from this proposed four-day work week,” Tibbetts said. “There may be some union language changes to work through on existing contracts. The library currently has a six-day week and would look to maintain that schedule with modifications to hours open and closing while coordinating staff to have two consecutive days off.

Tibbetts said that the June 21 effective date for the change has been established to provide an eight-week window to let the public know about the new hours for the Windham Town Hall.

“It’ll be a bit of an educational process and it’ll take some time, but we need to move forward with this,” Tibbetts told councilors.

He says a summary report will be provided to the Town Council in six months about the effectiveness of changing the hours for operations and any next steps, along with tracking of transactions for analysis. <

Raymond looks to future with Comprehensive Plan

By Briana Bizier

What do you want your town to look like in five years, or 10 years, or even 20 years? Right now, Raymond residents have a rare chance to answer that very question as the town looks for volunteers to help write a new Comprehensive Plan.

The town’s previous Comprehensive Plan was written in 2004. That document, which is available on the Town of Raymond’s website, was truly comprehensive; it covers topics ranging from descriptions of Raymond’s historical properties and archaeological sites to designating growth areas for new developments and protecting Raymond’s many beautiful lakes and ponds.

Raymond is actively seeking volunteers to
help the town develop a new Comprehensive 
Plan for addressing future growth and
development and protecting the town's
natural resources. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE  

“It’s a pretty encompassing document,” said Rolf Olsen, a current member of Raymond’s Select Board. “It touches on a lot of different areas. Essentially, it looks at demographics, land use, future planning, and future needs.”

While the proposed future Comprehensive Plan won’t change any current zoning regulations in Raymond, it will serve as a guide for the town’s future development. The new Comprehensive Plan, as Olsen explained, will serve as a backbone for new ordinances and development.

One set of decisions that has been guided by the current Comprehensive Plan are Raymond’s zoning regulations. “The last Comprehensive Plan really helped establish the two- and five-acre minimum lot sizes,” Olsen said. “There’s three zones in town. Rural and rural residential have different lot sizes. And then there was the village residential, where we didn’t have to define lot size because it was all full anyway.”

The 2004 Comprehensive Plan’s influence can also be seen all summer long in Raymond’s pristine lakes. Many lakes and ponds in Maine struggle with algae blooms that can make their waters green, turning away swimmers and tourists alike. The 2004 Comprehensive Plan suggested several measures to help prevent algae bloom, like regular septic tank inspections as well as the preservation of any wetlands over two acres in size.

Septic tank inspections and zoning decisions might sound like theoretical discussions with little real-world impact, but recommendations like this help to guide new construction and protect current resources. Ultimately, these decisions shape the future of the town.

For Olsen, the future of Raymond is best placed in the hands of today’s Raymond residents.

“We’re looking for a real cross-section of the population to serve on this committee,” Olsen said. “We don’t want to exclude people from any group - you’ve got the senior population, you’ve got the younger population, you’ve got people on the waterfront, you’ve got people not on the waterfront, people with kids in school - really, there’s no bad person for the committee. The driving thing is people who want to see Raymond survive and go forward in a positive manner.”

The people who do sign up for this committee should be prepared to be part of an extensive process. “There’ll be a lot of work to get done,” Olsen said. “It’s not one of those that will be just one or two meetings.”

When the last Comprehensive Plan was developed in 2004, Olsen said, the final 135-page document was the result of a lengthy process to envision Raymond’s future.

“When it was written back then, it took over a year to get it done," Olsen said. The process of approving the next Comprehensive Plan will likely involve many meetings as well as public hearings. “This plan helps guide a lot of decisions. That’s why it takes a lot of input back and forth.”

However, this is also a chance to make a lasting mark on the Town of Raymond.

“From my standpoint, it’s a chance to look at the old plan, to see what’s valid and what’s not valid, and to help set a course for the next x number of years,” Olsen said. “The people who want to see the town move forward in a positive manner - those are the people you want on there. They’re going to look at all the different things and see how we keep the character and move ahead without shutting anyone out.”

Despite the magnitude of the task, Olsen believes Raymond residents are up for the task of reimagining their town’s future.

“There’s not a lack of talent in this town,” Olsen said. “Although sometimes it’s a matter of getting them to come out.”

If you are interested in service on Raymond’s Comprehensive Plan, please fill out a volunteer application on the town website: https://www.raymondmaine.org/ <

Raymond banners pay tribute to town’s graduating seniors

Raymond honored 2020 high school
graduates from the town by putting
up 49 banners recognizing their
academic achievements.
WINDHAM EAGLE PHOTO

By Ed Pierce

It was a year like no other in history for high school students this year, but a kind gesture has lifted spirits and inspired some lasting memories for 49 graduating seniors from the Town of Raymond.

Starting on the weekend following graduation, motorists driving through town on Route 302 found individual banners containing the names of all 49 of the town’s graduating seniors affixed to light posts throughout Raymond.

During a recent Raymond Select Board meeting, a proposal was made to do something different this year to recognize graduates from the town after traditional rites of passage for graduating seniors such as the Senior Prom and the annual commencement ceremony were scrapped as a result of COVID-19 restrictions.

“We felt these graduates needed something after everything that’s happened in the past few months because of the coronavirus,” said Teresa Sadak of the Raymond Select Board. “And we wanted it to be for all graduating seniors from our town and not just those who graduated from Windham High School. We first looked at having signs made, but signs seemed rather ordinary. The banners were a better idea and the select board members agreed.”

In all, the town had 51 sturdy vinyl banners produced by Time4Printing in Windham, with the two additional signs saluting the Class of 2020 placed on utility poles on Route 302 near the town lines with Casco and Windham entering Raymond.

Names of the graduates were confirmed by town officials and then double-checked to ensure that they were spelled properly prior to the production process. It only took Time4Printing employees about week to create the banners and then give them to the town to be unfurled on graduation weekend. 

“These young people are indeed our future and they have worked 12 or 13 years to reach this point in school,” Sadak said. “It’s just a shame that they had to go through this and miss so many school activities before their graduation. This small gesture by the town is intended to show them that we have noticed all of their hard work to get to where they are today and we wanted to honor and recognize them with something they would always remember.”

Sadak said that once everyone has had a chance to view the banners, they will be given to each of the 49 graduates in recognition of their academic accomplishments in high school.

“They didn’t have a prom or even got to experience Senior Day,” Sadak said. “This is our way of saying congratulations to them and to show our town’s gratitude and appreciation for their achievement.”

Sadak said feedback she’s received for the effort has been entirely positive.

“The parents have told me how proud they are and have been very grateful to see this recognition,” she said. “One of the 49 graduates attended Oxford High School and she was amazed that she was honored in this way by us.”

According to Sadak, the fiberglass and aluminum mounts for the banners will be stored for use again in Raymond in the future.

“We could use them for holiday banners, for election banners or any variety of purposes,” she said. <