BURKE — For the first time in two months, the Burke Village Board met on Wednesday night.

But the meeting was not a typical Village Board session. The meeting was moved from its normal location in the kitchen of the Burke fire station to an adjoining room more than twice the size of the usual location. The move enabled officials to sit 6 feet apart; even so, Mayor Craig Dumas, Trustees Gary Lewis and Craig Perrigo, Clerk Judith Dumont and Water Superintendent Bernard Perry wore masks — as did the two visitors to the meeting, who sat well away from the board — and each other.

Burke was one of the few northern Franklin County governing bodies to physically get together to conduct local government business since the COVID-19 virus — and the precautions being taken to restrict its spread — hit the area roughly seven weeks ago. Several others are planning to do so after having canceled their meetings in April.

Some local governments — including the Franklin County Legislature and several county agencies, the Malone village and town boards and all five northern Franklin County school districts — have been conducting virtual meetings, using one of several services such as Zoom or Webex. Other local governments simply canceled their meetings in April.

The online meetings have not gone without a hitch. Crashes or freezes in the video stream, loss of audio and in some cases, an inability to launch the meeting at all, have occurred. But overall, those governments that turned to virtual meetings were able to meet with officials alone in their offices or comfortably at home.

But for many of the smaller communities, those types of meetings have not been an option. Some communities lack the technological know-how — or even the technology itself — to conduct virtual meetings. In others, leaders said they don’t see the need to make the extra effort to handle a few routine matters.

Duane town Supervisor Edward “Ned” LeMieux Sr. leads one of the communities where technology — or the lack of it — is a major issue. Duane, which sits inside the Adirondack Park, has extremely limited internet and even cellphone service — an issue LeMieux has long complained about.

Because of its lack of tech, the Duane Town Board canceled its April meeting and plans to continue to do so until Gov. Andrew Cuomo allows the state to reopen. In order to pay its monthly bills, members individually examine the vouchers and give the supervisor the authorization to pay them over the phone.

LeMieux noted that Duane meetings generally attract only a handful of people at most, and that there are no pressing issues in the town likely to change that in the near future. If something does come up, the town board will address the issue via telephone, he said.

“That’s the way we’re doing it, and until somebody comes up with a plan, that’s the way it’s going to stay,” LeMieux said.

Burke town Supervisor Bill Wood said his town also had canceled its April meeting, handling the month’s bills much as Duane had done. The next Town Board meeting, which normally would have been held on May 12, will be postponed until after May 15, when hopefully the state will take the first steps to reopening, he said.

Wood acknowledged that the practice violates both the state Open Meetings Law and Cuomo’s March 13 executive order, which permits local governments to meet “remotely by conference call or similar service, provided that the public has the ability to view or listen to such proceeding.” But, he said, he is willing to accept “a slap on the fingers” rather than struggle to meet the state requirements.

But Burke and other municipalities that fail to meet the requirements could face more than a simple slap. The Open Meetings Law allows a court to “nullify action taken by a public body in violation of the law” and to award legal fees to a person bringing suit against the body for violating the law.

Constable Supervisor Richard Onufer is one of those hoping to hold an in-person meeting in May, but he is facing a special set of difficulties. The normal Town Board meeting site in the town adult center is far too small to permit social distancing, even if only town officials attend the session. The town is in the process of building a new town hall with a much larger meeting space, but the building is not yet complete and the transfer of title to the tow has not yet taken place.

Still, Onufer said he plans to move several tables into the new building and hold the May 14 meeting there. The larger space will enable officials to practice social distancing for town business.

Constable canceled its April meeting and what town business is being conducted is via daily emails among the Town Board members, he said.

Westville Supervisor Rod Lauzon, who has closed his town’s meeting to the public and limited board action largely to paying bills, said he is considering asking his board for blanket authorization to pay bills as needed, with board members reviewing the payments after the fact. The practice is similar to one adopted following the 1998 ice storm that shut down much of the region for several weeks, he noted.

“You do what you can do,” Burke’s Wood said.

“I’ll be glad when this is done,” Lauzon said.