Office closing earlier on Fridays

By John Faucher

The Hortonville Village Board unanimously approved extending municipal office hours to 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with an early closure time of 1 p.m. on Fridays.

Current hours of operation at the Municipal Services Center are Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The change to those hours will take effect Monday, Jan. 7.

Village Administrator David DeTroye presented the proposed change to the board at the Dec. 20 board meeting.

DeTroye said the change would help increase customer service for residents, provide staff longer hours for interaction before and after work, and reduce the accumulation of comp time among staff.

DeTroye said he talked with all staff members and they agreed on changing the hours.

“We’re at a crossroads. We really need 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. in the morning when we do a lot of our group meetings, but we also feel that it’s relevant that we can stay until 4 o’clock to help out our service to the public immensely,” DeTroye said.

“The payoff would be a short Friday,” DeTroye told board members.

“I’ll be real honest, Fridays are slow,” he added.

Under the new hours, staff would work through lunch on Fridays to keep the office fully operational until 1 p.m. Employees would still have paid 15-minute breaks as required by labor laws.

Trustee Julie Arendt Vanden Heuvel asked if the village is looking into ways for the public to pay certain bills such as utility bills online to increase customer service.

DeTroye said staff will attend a webinar set up with GovPayNet in January.

GovPayNet will help train staff and assist the village in setting up a slide card reader for credit and debit card payments.

Residents would also be able to pay for utilities, citations and tax bills through the secure online service.

Trustee Pat Lund Moe asked if the change in hours would work for state-required timelines during voter registration.

DeTroye said the village would have to make an exception to the new hours and stay open longer during the timelines for voter registration.

DeTroye also noted that the towns of Greenville and Buchanan and the village of Winneconne have similar extended office hours Monday through Thursday, with reduced hours on Friday.

“I think it will be a good move, I really do,” DeTroye told the board.