New Hampton City Council allows departments to 'stagger hours'

New Hampton’s city clerk is asking for the pubic’s patience after Mayor Bobby Schwickerath and the City Council approved an emergency proclamation during Monday night’s meeting.
The proclamation allows the city’s department heads to “stagger” hours in an effort to make sure offices can stay open during the Coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, and City Clerk Karen Clemens said Tuesday that means just one employee will work from her office each week.
“If we all get sick now, we literally would have to shut down,” she said, “and with payroll and utility billing, we have to stay open.”
So Clemens will remain in the office this week while Deputy City Clerk Courtney Lechtenberg and Utility Billing Clerk Jenny van der Meer work from home. Next week, Lechtenberg will work in the office, and van der Meer will have the office on the week of April 20.
“We’re just asking people to be patient,” Clemens said. “If they get the answering machine, it’s because we’re helping someone at the [drive-up] window. Leave a message and we will get back to you. And the same goes for if we don’t come right to the window, we’re probably on the phone.”