NEW SCOTLAND — Following the statewide lifting of most COVID-19 restrictions, the town board here has decided to reopen Town Hall to the vaccinated public and is also planning in-person meetings, starting on Aug. 1.

Albany County, with 75 percent of adults being vaccinated this week, has surpassed the 70-percent mark set by the governor.

At a special New Scotland Town Board meeting on June 18, Supervisor Douglas LaGrange said there were a “handful” of employees who hadn’t been vaccinated, “a couple for medical reasons” and “a couple for already having COVID.”

“All I prefer is that unvaccinated people should wear a mask to protect others and protect themselves,” said Councilman William Hennessy. “That’s my opinion.”

“I think that, if we’re saying to the general public, ‘If they’re not vaccinated, they should wear a mask when they come into the building.’ We should certainly be saying that to our own employees as well,” Councilwoman Bridget Burke said.

“Unvaccinated is required to wear masks, I agree,” Hennessy said.

Town attorney Michael Naughton offered the board a resolution to pass that said in part “any unvaccinated person must wear a mask, and that any employee that’s unvaccinated also should wear a mask when interacting with the public.”

Also during the special June 18 meeting, board members decided to hold in-person meetings, starting Aug. 1. In an emerging trend, Burke disagreed with the others on the all-Democratic board. She wanted to hold in-person meetings sooner.

In March, when the board decided to make the town’s full-time code-enforcement officer a part-time position and bring on New Scotland’s first professional planner, on a part-time basis, Burke said she thought, if the board were looking at restructuring the building department, there should have been a workshop “that included public comment, but others were against that.”

When it came to vote to advertise for a part-time planner, Burke cast the dissenting vote, 4 to 1. But it was a 3-to-2 tally when it came to vote on advertising for a part-time code-enforcement officer, with Supervisor Douglas LaGrange joining Burke in the minority. 

“On the issue of board meetings, I am, of course, of the mind that thinks there is no longer any social-distancing requirements that we should have live board meetings,” Burke said during the June 18 meeting. 

She also said, if the other boards — the planning and zoning boards — wanted to meet in-person, they should be allowed to do so.

Councilman Dan Leinung said his only concern was making sure there was a remote set-up available for people who still “don’t feel comfortable coming to town hall for a meeting.” But Leinung added he didn’t think it was too hard to set up an iPad or cellphone as a way of achieving that goal. 

Burke responded that she would prefer “rather than wait until we’re 100-percent sure that we can have the webstream, I would prefer that we move to live meetings. And if we miss a month with a live webstream,” that would be OK, she said, because the town is still going to try to get it up and running for the following month.

Leinung replied that the two weren’t mutually exclusive, stating, “It’d be great if both could happen at the same time.”

Hennessy said he was “fine” with both options. 

LaGrange said he’d reached out to the town’s audio-visual contractor about setting up something for meetings. “But, I mean, I would think we’re not reinventing the wheel here.”

Hennessy then said July was “probably too soon” for in-person meetings, and said the board should plan for an August or September start, with which LaGrange agreed.

But Burke continued to push back.

“I think, rather than say, establishing they have to wait until August or September, we can say that September” is when all in-person meetings begin, but “if they choose to do it earlier, then each body can choose for themselves,” Burke said.

LaGrange said it could cause confusion with some boards having in-person meetings and some not, and noted there could be problems with notifying the public. 

Councilman Adam Greenberg said, “I’m not in any rush to have meetings in-person, but I’m fine doing it whatever boards are comfortable with.” Greenberg added that he liked what Hennessy and Leinung said about getting a remote meeting set-up in place and said, “I would shoot for August” for in-person meetings.

The board ultimately voted unanimously to begin in-person meetings on Aug. 1.