MECHANIC FALLS – Anyone needing to conduct town business Thursday or Friday will need to get in earlier in the week or wait until next week.

The town office, housed for the past nine months in a rented trailer, will close at the end of this week so employees can finally move into their permanent quarters. Hired movers will haul equipment, furniture, and files into the renovated 75-year-old building on Lewiston Street on Thursday. Town staff will sort through their things and set up offices all day Friday.

The original completion date was scheduled for Feb. 18. Despite going ahead with the move this week, several small jobs still need to be taken care of before the town signs off with contractor H.E. Callahan of Auburn. The absolute finish date is now scheduled for March 30, Town Manager Dana Lee told the Town Council on Monday.

“The building is substantially complete,” said Lee. “But there’s still a sizable list of a lot of small things. Overall, the contractor has been very agreeable, and has done a good job.”

However, the council went to into executive session at the end of Monday’s meeting to discuss how to handle damage caused by the contractor to the gymnasium floor in the municipal building.

Lee informed council members that the floor is now buckled, stained and dented. Councilman Marchian Crane moved to decide on further contract negotiations and how to leverage accountability for the floor damage in executive session. The other three members present, Oliver Emery, Roger Guptill and Chairman William Diehl, agreed.

The project already has cost the full $700,000 budgeted, plus the $40,000 set aside for contingencies. Code Enforcement Officer John Hawley said that some change orders in recent days had to be canceled because money had run out.

Last month, Lee told the council that while the project was expected to run past deadline, he was pleased that it had so far come within budget. The $250 a day penalty for missing deadline would cover the extra $1,200 needed for another month’s lease of the trailer, Lee reported in January.

The council decided Monday to sell off miscellaneous items left over from the old and temporary offices by some sort of silent bid process. Council members also authorized the town manager to research the cost of purchasing and installing a modern telephone system that would include voice mailboxes and call forwarding options.

Other decisions made by the Town Council on Monday included:

• Setting the annual town meeting for 6 p.m. May 18 and to be continued at 6 p.m. May 19 if any carryover business occurs.

• Scheduling a public hearing on the town’s budget for 7 p.m. April 28 in conjunction with the Mechanic Falls School Committee and its budget. The hearing will be held at the school’s gym.

• Awarding a purchase contract to O’Connor GMC of Augusta for a dump truck at a cost of $21,034 after trade-in.

• Awarding a purchase contract to Howard P. Fairfield Inc. of Skowhegan for another dump truck at approximately $40,000 with details still to be worked out.

• Authorizing the town’s animal control officer to issue summonses to 38 dog owners who have failed to license their animals by the Dec. 31 deadline and have yet to respond to reminders and telephone calls from town employees.