Marion municipal buildings to begin reopening in April

Mar 17, 2021

MARION — The Marion Town House will open to the public on April 5, provided covid cases continue to trend downward, according to reopening plans discussed in a Selectmen’s meeting on March 16.

The reopening would take the Town House back to the same covid measures practiced last fall, with masks required, and contact tracing and thermometer checks in place, Marion Town Administrator Jay McGrail said.

“Knock on wood, we’re kind of at a point where we’ve gotten past some of the spikes we saw since the holidays,” McGrail said, “so I’d like to go back to the plan we had.”

The Board of Selectmen is also exploring the possibility of opening the music hall to small in-person meetings in May.

McGrail has made arrangements to host a covid-safe, in-person Town Meeting at the library on May 10. The gymnasium used for last year’s meeting is currently serving as storage for the school after classrooms were emptied to meet social distancing requirements last fall.

“I hate to say it’s a mess, but it’s a disaster in there,” McGrail said.

The library space will be a tight squeeze, with room for only 200 socially-distanced residents. But McGrail said one additional room will be set aside for vaccinated residents “with closer spacing than six feet,” a move supported by Board of Health Chairperson Dr. Edward Hoffer.

“Given that change, I can have about 300 to 400 people in Sippican in the different spaces and be able to comply with social distancing requirements as well,” McGrail said.

Updates will also be given via a virtual pre-town meeting, to be held on May 3.