PARIS – Town employees will get Friday off this week after a mishap over the Christmas holiday.

At its Nov. 22 meeting, the Paris Board of Selectmen voted to keep the town offices open the Friday before Christmas. But when workers showed up Dec. 24, they soon learned they had no access to state files or information because the state computer service was shut down that day.

This meant items such as vehicle registrations couldn’t be processed, said interim Town Manager Elisa Whiteley. “If anybody came in with technical questions, we weren’t going to be able to help them.”

Some phone calls were made, Whiteley said, and finally Selectman Bruce Hanson arrived at the Town Office on Friday and told everyone to go home.

When the situation was discussed by the selectmen at Monday’s meeting, members voted 5-0 in favor of giving town employees this Friday off to avoid any further confusion. The board also voted 5-0 to pay all employees who showed up Dec. 24 for two hours of work.

Selectman Barbara Payne said the board needed to apologize to the public for advertising that the office would be open Dec. 24., then closing the doors early.