The city of Dunkirk will hold their first Common Council meeting today since the coronavirus shutdown. The last meeting was held on March 3 and at that time discussion was leading up to possible charter changes for the city.

This meeting however, will not be like most as social distancing is still in play. First Ward Councilman Don Williams and Councilman-at-large Paul VanDenVouver shared in a short video Monday how the meeting would progress using electronic means.

“We’ll have Gabe Taylor of Dunkirk Access filming and on the inside of the gate (at City Hall) we’ll have the five council members, we’ll have the two people from the clerk’s office and also (Dunkirk Police) Chief (Dave) Ortolano will be present as a safety measure,” Williams stated in the video. “The mayor (Wilfred Rosas) and all of the department heads will be on a TV screen through Zoom.”

The biggest concern of the council however was how the public could participate. The council therefore requests that anyone who wishes to voice a concern can email council@cityofdunkirk.com by noon on Tuesday. The stipulations are that in the subject line it must be stated what resolution it’s in regards to or if it’s just general comments the sender should write “privilege of the floor.” The council also requires that each sender includes their first and last name and address within their email as well. One request the pair had in the video for this meeting only is that the council would like to keep privilege of the floor emails to only comments about listed agendas items only.

To those residents who don’t use email a written letter can be submitted to the clerk’s office instead.

“We’re going through uncharted territory at this time, so we’re trying to have a meeting to continue to keep the momentum going for the city and we have a lot of issues that we need to take care of a conduct so this is one way to do it,” VanDenVouver added. “This is a practice trial, so we’re going to see what happens and hopefully this will only be one time and maybe one time after this and that’ll be it and we can get back to normal; we appreciate all your help.”

The agenda is available for review on the city of Dunkirk’s website and the meeting will be shown live on the Dunkirk Access channel and streamed on YouTube today at 5:30 p.m.