The year 2020 would be most accurately described as a mental, physical and personal test of patience for people of all ages that survived it.

Granville Mayor Paul Labas, town supervisor Matt Hicks and Hartford supervisor Dana Haff all had the opportunity to reflect on the hectic, lesson-filled year.

“The village reacted immediately to the outbreak of the coronavirus by adhering strictly to the guidelines issued by New York State,” Labas said. “I as mayor have kept in close contact with our representative from the governor’s office, Samuel Parker. He kept our office informed with any guidelines that changed and what rules to adhere to as far as the village goes and to what was allowed. I still check in with him weekly to stay updated.

“I hope soon that things can go back to normal for us all, especially having open meetings and gatherings that we all missed out on in 2020 like parades, concerts in the park, and other public event gatherings.”

Hicks noted the positive and negative highlights of the year, and how the town was able to react to an unusual situation.

“2020 was a bit of a roller coaster,” Hicks said. “Operations were pretty normal through the first quarter as we learned of COVID, but starting in April, we started to close things down and went to virtual meetings for several months. Positive takeaways were nobody in town hall or the highway department got sick as we all tried to follow the guidelines. Negative takeaways were all the adjustments we had to make to adapt to a new situation.

“We got the PPE (gloves, masks, sanitizer, etc.) and followed the NYS directives. We put up plexiglass barriers in the town clerk’s office and in the court.  The highway department kept one man to a truck and worked outside as much as possible.”

Haff’s response was critical of the distinction of “essential” workers.

“Hartford reacted with push-back upon the despicable notion that some people’s occupations are non-essential,” Haff said. “If the job keeps a roof over your head and food on the plate how dare our government say otherwise? Forcing people out of work will slide us towards a welfare state. Hartford did not shut down operations for even a day. We were able to make accommodations to continue servicing our citizens rather than take the easy way out by running and hiding.”

Hicks chimed in by saying there was confusion between the communication from the governor’s office and how small towns were expected to operate in adverse conditions.

“One challenge was to understand all the info coming from the state and how it related to our municipality. New directives and executive orders were coming at a rapid pace and much of it did not have backup on how we were supposed to implement what the state wanted,” Hicks said. “Financially, we weathered the storm quite well and had no major economic impacts from the pandemic.  The town is healthy from a financial standpoint and we hope to keep that momentum going in 2021.”

Labas’ key concern was how to allow community members to access public services in a safe and efficient manner with all of the precautions, protocols and guidelines to abide by.

“The biggest challenges I faced in 2020, I think, were trying to operate the village in a manner that would allow accessibility as well as hospitality to our village residents,” Labas said. “People still need to live their lives and that means they need access to their local government for answers and services provided to them. Our senior shuttle program is a huge benefit for our community as well as our Department of Public Works services for water and sewer services and repairs.

“It was a very difficult time to keep all of the important services that Granville offers to its residents up-and-running,” Labas said. ”Sometimes I look back and actually wonder how we pulled it off! I have to say that without our dedicated department heads and employees in our DPW and police force, we could have very easily been in some dire straits. As it fared out, the village has weathered this storm in a remarkable way and I am thankful and humbled by the amount of support the community has shown by working together so we can all survive to the best of our capability.”

Haff was frustrated with the state’s directive of requiring masks to cover the nose and mouth of an individual, as he feels the mask isn’t as effective as the state government claims it to be.

“Challenges were to find a way to work around COVID, not let it control you. In my opinion, this is more of a ‘control the masses’ issue than a science one,” Haff said. “The masks people are made to wear are basically useless dust masks, but the government wants you to think it will illogically stop a virus that is about 0.1 microns in size.”

Haff expressed his personal sentiments for Cuomo and described a loss of “logic” in the state government.

“I believe that small government is the best government and the Hartford public can rest assured that we will not become obtrusive in their lives assisting this slide towards a welfare state ruled by King Cuomo,” Haff said. “Cuomo wants to rule many aspects of your life, we do not. The role of government is not to be your nanny. I would tell the public to ‘hunker down, it will get better,’ but that would be dishonest because I do not think logic rules the day anymore. Most of us in flyover country are overruled by the liberal east and left coast density centers.”

Labas and Hicks both expressed positive hopes and energy heading into 2021 for both the village and town of Granville.

“I see the village going forward from this pandemic and I will once again be focusing on the growth and expansion of the village of Granville,” he said. “We have come a long way in the last two years, and even though the momentum of my plans was slowed down during this pandemic, I can assure you that it did not stop.

“ I am optimistic that we will come through this with a brighter vision on things for the betterment of the village of Granville through responsible growth with faithful leadership dedicated to the people that live here, so we can all have a safe and sound Village to continue to live and work in, as well as raise our families,” Labas said.

“The community seemed to work together well in staying calm and working together to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic,” Hicks said. “We should be patient and assume that 2021 will be better, but it will take several months to get back to any sense of normalcy. We are grateful that nobody got sick with COVID and the number of cases in Granville remained quite low with no major outbreaks.  We learned to be ready for almost anything and to be able to roll with the punches.”

Haff, on the other hand, not so much.

“I am not optimistic about 2021 because the goal post keeps moving,” he said. “Remember back in March where it was a 14-day lockdown? What a farce and our economy suffered a stroke. I shake my head at how we are on the verge of losing our democracy and half the national general public seems to be okay with that, seemingly unaware of its ramifications.”