City Hall in Mason City is once again open to the public

MASON CITY — After being closed to the public since late January for a renovation project, City Hall in Mason City is now open.

 Mayor Bill Schickel made the announcement earlier today on the “Ask the Mayor” program on AM-1300 KGLO. He says the building reopened this morning and he’s excited to welcome everybody back. “Regular office hours here are 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and please do stop by and take a look.”

Schickel says regular visitors to City Hall will notice the improvements right away.  “When you enter the building, you’ll notice the customer service counter is closer now, it will be more convenient for citizens. There’s some health and safety improvements as well. There should be easier access for utility payments, bus tokens and things along those lines. There’s a nice conference room in back if you need to visit with staff or talk to me or talk to anyone. We’re delighted to be able to welcome back people to City Hall.”

Part of the improvements include new security measures for entering City Hall. “When you come into the front area, there is a safety procedure, there is a glass partition installed as well. If you want to talk to somebody, you can talk to someone up front and they’ll buzz you in.”

Schickel says most of the costs of the $232,400 project were covered by federal funding from pandemic relief due to the employee safety aspect of the project. “The federal government, knowing that we’ve been dealing for better than the last two years with a lot of issues related to the pandemic, provided this kind of thing, and this provides additional safety for our staff in pandemic-related areas and other areas, as well as additional protections for the citizens.”

You can listen to more comments from Schickel’s appearance on the “Ask the Mayor” program by heading to the audio player below