All five members of the Hennessey’s town board were smiling when they left last Thursday’s special meeting to update town codes.

That’s because Town Attorney Jared Harrison suggested it was “more of an administrative job... and we can bring you back a fairly final product for your approval.”

At the start of the meeting, Trustee David Jones said he didn’t “want to be there until midnight.”

They weren’t.

“It took us more than an hour to go over only 22 pages,” said Trustee Bert Gritz, “and there must be a ream (500 sheets) of pages left in the (town ordinance) code book.”

Gritz was close with his count.

“It’s 660 pages,” Harrison said and asked how long the board had been working on the project.

Members said they received them in November.

That was after the town’s ordinances had been codified, but before then-town attorney John Wynne added his notes about other updates.

The meeting started at 5 p.m. (an hour earlier than usual meetings) and ended by about 6:30 p.m.

Harrison said to comply with open meeting requirements, only two board members could attend those work sessions.

Mayor Clif Vogt was the only volunteer.

Other trustees at the Thursday meeting were Vice Mayor Harold Shaw, Trustees Randy Bohnstedt, Gritz and Jones.

In addition to the attorney, also present for the meeting were Town Clerk Kelley Vaverka and Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman.

There were media, but no visitors at the meeting.

Open Records Requests

A question about whether the elected town clerk (Vaverka) is the only person who could handle open record requests was also answered by Harrison. “It’s the Office of the Clerk,” he said, adding that doesn’t mean that the elected clerk is the only one who may receive requests, or make the actual search, or provide the documents.

Harrison said Tillman could delegate that to other Town Hall staff.

The next regular meeting of the Hennessey board is 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at Town Hall.