LEBANON – The town has shut down. Government offices in this southwestern Maine town shut their doors Monday until at least Aug. 13. Voters last month rejected a proposed $110,000 budget to run the town government – in effect voting to shut down town offices.

That means residents can’t get car registrations or fishing and hunting licenses. The eight town employees are taking off July – and several are expected to apply for unemployment.

Ray and Mary-Ann Vanderwoude last week scrambled to register their cars and boats, because the offices won’t be open when their registrations expire at the end of July.

“It’s very aggravating,” Mary-Ann Vanderwoude said. “It’s too bad that these ladies [in the office] have to suffer.”

This is the second time in 10 years that Lebanon voters have shut down government offices. There appears to be little evidence that any other town in Maine has closed its doors once – let alone twice. “I’ve never heard of this before,” said Michael Starn, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association.

Residents blame the current trouble on the rift between the Board of Selectmen and a local group called Lebanon Citizens for Better Government.