Update: Shortly before noon Tuesday, Feb. 14, Town Manager Dennis Simmons announced the flooring work at the clerk’s office “has been postponed to a future date.”

Original post: Wiscasset announced Monday, the town office will be closed from noon Thursday, Feb. 16 until noon Wednesday, Feb. 22. “This closure is necessary to allow for the abatement of asbestos in the flooring of the town clerk/tax collector’s office. We apologize for any inconvenience. At this point the select board meeting scheduled for Feb. 21 will take place as planned,” the announcement stated.

Responding to questions emailed Monday, Town Manager Dennis Simmons wrote: “The asbestos is actually in the mastic used to glue some of the floor tiles down. As long as the tiles are intact, undamaged, or encapsulated there is no risk. I am not sure when or who discovered the asbestos. I know that previous town manager (John) O’Connell was made aware of it during his time here. In 2019, the town had appropriated $45,000 from the capital reserve to rehab all of the floors in the building and we have been working on them based on their condition. Some areas of the fire department were showing some wear so that area, as well as the police department and most of the town office end.

“The clerk’s office floor is covered by carpeting that is wearing and needs to be replaced before it exposing any potential hazards,” Simmons continued. “This means removing everything from the office and the computer systems that staff use to process everything from motor vehicle registrations to vendor payments will be offline.

“The office is always closed on Friday and is closed Monday (Feb. 20) for the President’s Day holiday, so employees will only be out of the office one day. They will be paid for that day. Once the clerk’s office is complete, the mailroom and map room will done. They have the same carpeting, but it is over concrete, not tiles.”