County offices to close for most of next two weeks
By Steve Herring
Published in News on December 22, 2013 1:50 AM
For many Wayne County government employees, the Christmas season is a slow time with most offices only open for four days over the next two weeks, thanks to the Christmas and New Year's holidays, as well as the county's four-day work week rule that closes offices on Fridays.
The County Manager's Office, the Finance Department, the Planning Department, Inspections, Services on Aging, the Register of Deeds and the Tax Office will be open Monday, but will be closed for the rest of the week.
They will be closed Jan. 1 as well.
Other offices have even more time off.
Human Resources, Cooperative Extension, Public Affairs, the administrative offices of the Office of Emergency Services, Veterans Services, the Health Department, and the Department of Social Services will be closed Monday through Friday and on Jan. 1.
By comparison, Wilson, Sampson, Pitt, Duplin and Lenoir county offices will be closed Tuesday through Thursday and New Year's Day.
However, county DSS Director Debbie Jones said the impact of the days off should be minimal as December is usually a slow month for the agency.
"People are busy with home and families, traveling and so on," she said. "Business will pick back up for us in January after the holidays."
The Health Department's Physician-Assisted Prenatal Clinic will be open Monday from 8 a.m. to noon for prenatal clients by appointment only.
The communicable disease staff will monitor the N.C. Electronic Surveillance to acknowledge lab reports that require immediate follow-up, department officials said.
Local partners and the N.C. Communicable Disease Branch have emergency contact numbers for agency emergency contact staff, the officials said.
The after-hours phone message provides emergency instructions to clients and instructions to providers on reporting communicable diseases, environmental health emergencies and public health threats, Health Department officials said.
The sheriff's administrative offices will be closed Dec. 24, 25, 26 and Jan. 1. The offices will be open Dec. 23 and 27 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Development Alliance will be closed from Dec. 20-27, and Jan. 1. It will open for part of the day on Dec. 30 and 31.
The Soil and Water Conservation office will be closed Dec. 24, 25, 26 and Jan. 1.
The Wayne County Public Library branches will be closed Dec. 24, 25, 26 and Jan. 1. They have different schedules for Monday.
The Goldsboro branch will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Pikeville from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Fremont from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Steele Memorial in Mount Olive from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The landfill and convenience centers will be closed Dec. 24 and 25 and New Year's Day.
"County offices have worked a similar schedule for the past few years and it worked fine for all concerned," Wayne County Commission Chairman Wayne Aycock said in a prepared statement. "We don't anticipate any problems.
"For most of the county offices, the week of Christmas is extremely slow as it relates to customers and traffic, but picks up after Christmas with customers dealing with year-end business and taxes."