Bridgewater has decided to close town hall for the holiday season in December.
This is the second consecutive year town council voted to shut down four of its departments including engineering, parks and planning.
Staff are required to use vacation or lieu time to cover their absence, which totalled 422 hours in 2015.
CAO Ken Smith says there are safeguards in place in case people need help.
“They could phone Public Works or the emergency phone line if they had a water break or something that would constitute an emergency.”
The closure will be in effect from December 26 to January 1.
Smith says Christmas time closures are common in many municipalities.
He adds, only a small number of people try to access town hall during those days.
“We have a choice of having staff take vacation time when it’s really slow versus when it’s busy. From a business view point, that was the time to do it.”
The town plans to make a Christmas-time closure an annual occurrance.
