LEBANON — City Hall, which closed in January for a $6.7 million renovation, is again open to the public, sporting a new lobby, upgraded meeting spaces and lots of screens.
Doors to the 1923 building reopened Monday, allowing residents to pay their property taxes, register their vehicles and apply for building permits in-person for the first time in months.
While operations temporarily moved to 20 W. Park St., the former home of Citizens Bank, that building closed to the public in mid-March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re all welcoming being back open. It’s something that we wanted to do,” City Clerk Kristen Kenniston said Monday while standing in her department’s new workspace.
Although the renovation, which had been pushed back for more than a decade, was largely aimed at insulating the historic structure and improving its energy efficiency, there are improvements throughout.
On the second floor, people using the main entrance step inside a bank-like lobby with new furniture, TV screens that will display information and a line with social distancing markers placed on the floor.
Each department — the city clerk’s office, assessing and finance — has windows separating employees from residents via plastic dividers. Those windows are a few feet off the ground, with employees sitting on the other side, so that people in wheelchairs can easily access services.
“It’s really nice to have the set-up that we have. I think it’s going to be a lot more efficient for our customers and our staff,” Kenniston said.
She added that the former lobby, with its long counter, was too much like a “fishbowl” that offered little security and forced staffers to constantly walk back and forth from desks, printers and residents.
A level below, crews have converted City Hall’s basement into a new meeting space for the City Council and Lebanon’s boards and committees.
The space, which used to house the planning office, is filled with chairs, tables and 80-inch television screens to assist those presenting information electronically and help livestream meetings. New cameras along the walls also are designed to zero in on whoever is speaking.
The city has streamed all of its meetings online during the pandemic, but the new space is designed to make the process easier, according to City Manager Shaun Mulholland.
He said that while the city will eventually go back to holding in-person events, it also plans to continue allowing people to access them online.
“This was built in 1923. There were some small renovations after that but it’s really designed for a paper world that doesn’t exist anymore,” Mulholland said. “This building has been designed for the modern world.”
On the top floor, the planning office has moved into its spacious new home, complete with vaulted ceilings and large windows that overlook Colburn Park.
It’s a big change for the city’s planning staff, who were relegated to the basement since the police department moved out in 1991.
“They did a phenomenal job. It’s a beautiful space,” Planning Director David Brooks said. “We’re lucky to be here.”
While construction crews have accomplished a lot, there’s still ongoing renovation work that could continue through next year, according to Mulholland.
Work is underway to add insulation to the walls of the Lebanon Opera House, which will receive a fresh coat of paint before reopening.
The city manager also included a $364,000 appropriation in his proposed 2021 budget to insulate the City Hall bathrooms and install low-flush toilets and touchless fixtures.
While all three department heads said Monday they hope the building remains open, none of them ruled out another closure as COVID-19 cases continue to spike in the Twin States.
“The most important piece will be our ability to manage people in the building. If we cannot safely queue people in our lobby, we will have to restrict operations,” Mulholland said. “So far that is working well.”
Information on the City Hall reopening, including new hours, is available at lebanonnh.gov.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.