Please make an appointment, to make an appointment. City Hall sees large volume of calls as new public access procedures move forward!

The City of Prince Rupert's new By Appointment access to City Hall is making for clogged phone lines and unanswered calls, with the City now asking residents to leave a message for a return call at some point later.

As we noted last week, City Manager Robert Long had provided an outline as to how the City of Prince Rupert would resume its City Hall operations last Wednesday.

At the May 25th Council session, Prince Rupert Council members  received an update on the relaunch which will see City Hall adopt one person at a time access to civic staff and officials and that by way of a pre-booked appointment.

However, as has been noted on the City's Facebook page the calls to seek out information from the city staff or to actually book an appointment is proving to be a challenge for the public, with busy phone lines and unanswered calls leaving residents to have to leave a message for a return call at some point later on.

The notice which was posted last Friday morning provided the snap shot of the new normal these days, with the City thanking the public for its patience.

The volume of calls for assistance must still be high though, as the answering machine was still kicking in on Wednesday afternoon asking residents to leave a message.

As part of his presentation to Council last Monday, Mr. Long observed of the physical limitations of space that City Hall presents and how they plan to adapt to as the city adopts its new normal.

The reduced access and by appointment program comes at what is probably the busiest period of time for city staff, with Property Taxes recently delivered to residents, a process that normally sees for increased volume of interaction between civic staff and the public.

In response to that increase in calls for assistance the city posted a range of alternative options towards payment of the property tax bills, which you can review from their Facebook page and the city website.

For more notes on past City Council discussion themes see our archive page here.