Print
Share page with AddThis

Budget Cuts Impact on Town Clerk's Office 2/22/21

Posted on: February 22, 2021 - 7:01pm

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 by calling 781-826-5000, ext. 1079.