WINDHAM – Starting next week, the town of Windham’s municipal offices will stay open for business on Fridays.

Since 2010, the town hall has operated on Mondays through Thursdays, from 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m. But beginning on Wednesday, April 23, the offices will open from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

The Town Council, in response to complaints from local residents and businesses, asked Town Manager Tony Plante to open the offices on Friday, a change that will cost the town about $19,000 this year.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Councilor Donna Chapman. “I think it’s easier for people to get in on a Friday and get out of work earlier, versus trying to go in on a Monday or Tuesday or Thursday on a work week.”

Prior to July 2010, the town office was open five days a week. But due to declining revenues caused by the 2008 economic crisis, the town cut the office’s operating hours from 47.5 hours to 34 hours per week, and started closing on Fridays. A year later, the town office began to open an hour earlier, at 7 a.m., increasing weekly operations to 38 hours. The new schedule will increase the hours of weekly operation to 40.

The majority of the cuts in the wake of the economic crisis affected the town’s administrative assistants and customer service staff, according to Plante. If the town was to return administrative support and customer service staffing to the pre-July 2010 levels, it would need to fund 73 new staff hours per week for approximately $80,000 per year, Plante wrote in a memo to the council. The town would have to fund new health insurance and retirement costs, as well, he wrote.

Councilor Dennis Welch, who has advocated for a five-day schedule since he joined the council in 2011, said that the offices should remain open until 6 at least one night a week.

“Not everybody gets out at normal hours, so at least give them one night a week to register their vehicles, to do whatever business they need to do at the town hall,” Welch said.

Welch said he would potentially advocate for more hours during budget discussions in the coming weeks.

“It all depends on how bad the budget is this year,” he said. “We need to pay for that, and I get phone calls from people who wanted it open at least one night a week later than 4 p.m.”

Larry Eliason, a commercial broker with Butts Commercial Brokers in Windham, has pushed for Friday office hours for years. On holidays, Eliason said, the town’s four-day weekends can disrupt business affairs.

“Delays can cause people to look elsewhere,” he said referring to developers and those looking to locate a business.

Eliason said the new hours would help real estate professionals.

“A lot of the real estate attorneys and title companies, they have a lot of closings on Fridays, and it’s going to help contractors that are going to come in for progress on home building or commercial buildings being built,” he said. “It’s going to help having those operating hours.”

After years of having three-day weekends, Plante said that town hall employees would have to adjust to a shorter weekend.

“The sentiment was that the office needed to be open on Friday,” Plante said. “It’s an adjustment that people have to make. There are pluses and minuses either way.”

After several years of being closed on Fridays, the Windham Town Hall will begin opening its doors five days a week starting on Wednesday.