Dear fellow Hanoverians:
Hanover Town Clerk Catherine Harder-Bernier confirmed this past week with
Finance Director Chelsea Stevens that due to the COVID-19 partial hiring
freeze, the Town of Hanover will not be filling the Assistant Town Clerk
position until sometime after the May Annual Town Meeting confirms approval
of the position for Fiscal 2022. The office used to have two full-time
employees, and now there is only one. Therefore, the Town Clerk’s Office
will continue to be understaffed for the rest of this fiscal year, as it
has been since the end of August, 2020.
“Hanover residents are used to the Town Clerk’s Office acting as the
welcoming and helpful ‘front porch to the old-style General Store’, and
providing superior customer service” said Harder-Bernier.
“Unfortunately, with the reduction in staff to half our usual
availability, we are simply unable to fulfill the mission of this office
the way we would like to fulfill it, and the way Hanover residents are used
to,” she continued.
In order to protect the integrity of the work that is urgently necessary
and due to the COVID-19 partial hiring freeze and service cuts, the
following services have been changed as follows:
• The Town, including the Town Clerk’s Office, no longer provides
notary public services
• As a result of a tag manufacturing delay and the staffing shortage, dog
license applications for 2021 are back-logged and currently being responded
to approximately 4-6 weeks after the application. That will result in a
lag-time for checks to be cashed, but residents should rest assured that
their checks are secured in the meantime.
• The phones will be answered “live” as much as humanly possible. We
will strive to return phone messages within one business day. In the
meantime, residents are urged to seek information on the Town Clerk’s
section of the website.
• All records requests, including vital records (birth, marriage and
death certificates), business certificates, public records, etc., will be
responded to as soon as possible, but as the law allows, they may take up
to 10 days to be responded to. Residents are kindly asked to plan
accordingly.
• In-person appointments are being made for people who wish to file
marriage intentions or need to be sworn in to a new position.
• Because of the pandemic, ALL other transactions are being handled
electronically, via a drop-off in the front door mail slot, or via US Mail
– depending on the nature of the transaction and the location of the
requestor.
• The planned application for CPC funding to further the planned archival
of files from the basement of Town Hall that are now stored at Sylvester
School has been delayed at least another year.
“Hanover residents should rest assured that this is not how I like
services to be provided, and I sincerely regret any inconvenience or delay
the COVID-19-related partial hiring freeze is causing. I will do my best
to do both jobs for now! I look forward to re-authorizing a full-time
Assistant Town Clerk to this office at the May 3 Annual Town Meeting,”
said Harder-Bernier. “In the meantime, the one service that will not
change is the administration of our elections. That has always been of
utmost importance. Fortunately, the former Finance Director Lincoln
Heineman agreed with me and allowed me to hire four temporary per-diem
staff back in the fall. Hopefully that prioritization will continue and
per diem staff can be re-hired this spring as we gear up for the May Annual
Town Election,” she continued.
Residents who wish to transact business with the Town Clerk’s Office
should contact Town Clerk Catherine Harder-Bernier at
catherine.harderbernier@hanover-ma.gov or (781) 826-5000 x1079.
For “Around Town on the Web”,
Cathy H-B
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