By Tracy Ouellette
SLN Staff
The East Troy Village Board met in person Monday night for the first time since the COVID-19 shutdown in mid-March.
Like many municipalities across the state and country, the Village Board has been conducting business via Zoom meetings, which were open to the public. The board decided to meet in person for the June 1 meeting last month and asked Village Administrator Eileen Suhm to create a hybrid of a normal meeting and a Zoom meeting to allow residents, contractors and department heads to attend remotely.
Monday night was the first attempt at the hybrid meeting and for the most part, it went well.
“I did get one call, which I have to return, but I suspect it was about the sound last night,” Suhm said Tuesday morning. “We think we found a solution to it this morning, we were testing it out already. We have equipment that works through the phone and plugs directly into the sound system so people attending remotely will be able to speak and hear through the sound system.”
Sometimes the problem was simply the Village Board members forgetting to turn on their mics, which was easily remedied.
Suhm said the “new normal” is going to take some patience and trial and error before they work all the kinks out, but it was something the village was committed to.
“I would really like the remote attendees to have a good experience so they don’t feel like they have to come to the meetings if they are uncomfortable,” she said.
No residents attended Monday night’s meeting in person, but about six residents attended via Zoom along with five village department heads and contractors, Suhm said.
For the full story, pick up a copy of this week’s edition of the East Troy Times/News.
