NEW GLOUCESTER – When Town Manager Rosemary Kulow leaves her post at 2 p.m. Friday, the legal authority to carry out some of her duties lapses until selectmen appoint replacements.

The board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22.

Kulow’s job includes the responsibilities of clerk, road commissioner, tax collector, treasurer and welfare director.

“I will continue to be the tax collector until selectmen release me from my duties by signing a certificate of settlement,” she explained Thursday. “Therefore, all my deputy tax collectors are authorized to collect taxes until new appointments are made.”

Selectmen will clarify how the positions will be filled, according to their agenda, while a search begins to find a new town manager for the community of approximately 5,000 residents.

Chairman of the board Lenora Conger did not return calls for comment Thursday night.

In an annotated agenda for the board meeting Monday, Kulow said, “Before the tax collector can be released from the duties of tax collection for a town, the municipal officers need to sign off on Certificates of Settlement for each of the affected tax years.

“A tax collector has to be appointed before the town can accept tax payments,” she advised. “The tax collector is the person who appoints deputies, those people in the front office who actually accept the payments and do the work,” she wrote.

According to the Maine Municipal Officials handbook, once the board releases a town manager from the duties of tax collector, those deputies have no authority until another collector, road commissioner, treasurer and welfare director are appointed. Selectmen are not allowed to take over those duties.

Kulow also told the board that the town attorney recommends appointing people or a person for the positions of clerk, road commissioner, tax collector, treasurer and welfare director until a permanent town manager is hired.

Highway Department Director Ted Shane, who oversees 11 workers to run the highway department and the town’s transfer station, said a road commissioner needs to be appointed.

“We’ll go on with our business as usual,” he said by telephone Thursday.

Asked if the board had met to address the lapse in duties, Shane responded, “Selectmen let that go.”

Kulow’s resignation came as a surprise to the board at the end of a regular meeting last month. She has been manager for five years.