City, county offices shut down for Christmas

    Public buildings throughout Washington will close their doors for Christmas on Friday. Some will also be closed Thursday, while others will be open only part of the day. The longest vacation is no doubt enjoyed by school children, who will dismiss at 1:10 p.m. Wednesday and not return until Monday, Jan. 4. That applies to all buildings and grade levels, including St. James Catholic School. School secretaries will work their normal hours Wednesday. 

    The city government?s offices will be shut down Thursday and Friday. The buildings that will be closed to the public on those two days include city hall, the police department office, the water plant, the wastewater plant, the parks department office, the public works building and the maintenance and construction office.

    The maintenance garage will have a crew on stand-by in case of inclement weather. If there is a problem with a traffic light or any other issue with public property over the holiday break, contact the Safety Center at 653-2107.

    Washington County offices will follow different schedules on Thursday. State judicial offices will take a furlough day on Thursday, so they will be closed Thursday and Friday. That includes the clerk of court?s office in the courthouse and the whole judicial department.

    The auditor, treasurer and recorder?s offices and all of their departments will close at noon on Thursday and remain closed Friday. That same schedule will be followed by other county offices such as the assessor, county engineer, mental health services, veterans affairs, GIS and the elections commissioner.

    The county attorney?s office will have regular hours on Thursday and be closed Friday. The Department of Human Services will also have normal hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday and will be closed Friday.

For the full article, see the Dec. 22 print edition of the Washington Evening Journal.