Milford Town Hall Could Close Earlier On Fridays

MILFORD, MA — A new proposal to change Milford's Town Hall hours is being reviewed by the Board of Selectmen. If approved, Town Hall would close at noon, bringing Milford into alignment with several other municipalities in the state. The change would also add longer hours to one day during the week.

The Board of Selectmen reviewed a proposal put together by Maureen Griffin, the town's Human Resources Director. The proposal compares Milford to 75 other municipalities in the state who answered a survey Griffin put together. Milford's Town Hall is open from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. on week days. The proposal would cut hours on Fridays so that offices closed at noon but also add an hour and a half on Tuesday evenings.

Milford's Town Hall hours stand out among many other municipalities since there are no weekly evening hours and the Friday hours last until 5 p.m.

Board of Selectmen Chairman William Buckley made it clear that the change may not make everyone in the town happy, but the goal of any change would be an improvement in customer service. "We’re making a change in an effort to improve our customer service," he said, "To me these are the right steps and things to try."

Town Administrator Richard Villani said word around the town hall is positive about the proposal but he added that no matter what, the change would take time to implement. "We’re not looking at doing this next week," Villani said.

Griffin still needs to incorporate a cost saving estimate to the proposal and the Board voiced encouragement to bring the idea to formal department head meetings to see how it could affect each department and board's individual hours.

The new hours could have a start date of Jan. 1, officials suggested the first year be a pilot. The change would be paired with the vacation policy update.