BANGOR – Work to remove asbestos and decrease radon levels in the basement of the Penobscot County Courthouse is scheduled to begin Thursday.

The remediation is expected to be completed by Feb. 1 and cost about $300,000.

At least five employees have been moved to other offices while the work is being done, and hundreds of records have been placed in storage, according to County Administrator Bill Collins.

“We can’t take chances with the health of any of our people,” he said Tuesday. “This is the type of issue it’s far better to address now.”

Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that causes lung cancer, as does asbestos. About 20,000 cancer deaths each year are linked to exposure to radon, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Levels of the gas at the court house were found earlier this year to be higher than acceptable for workplace safety, according to the county administrator.

Fixing the problem will involve installing a new heating and cooling system in the basement. To do that, workers will have to expose water pipes wrapped in asbestos. Commissioners decided to remove the hazardous material at the same time to save money.

The asbestos removal is estimated to cost $18,000. The radon remediation is estimated to cost $275,000. The money will come out of the county’s building fund, Collins said.

Three lawyers who work for Penobscot County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy and the county’s two victim witness advocates settled Tuesday into temporary quarters across the street from the courthouse. Their offices at 116 Hammond St. – the longtime office of the late Bangor attorney Marshall Stern – will cost the county $1,500 a month, Collins said Tuesday.

“It is inconvenient,” Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, said Tuesday of the temporary move. “Staff is away from files and across a busy street from the courts.”

Maine’s court system and district attorney’s offices still work from a paper filing system rather than a highly computerized one. The federal court system is almost paperless.

The county’s Roads and Mapping Department moved temporarily from the courthouse basement to the County Commissioners’ Meeting Room on the first floor. County commissioners met Tuesday in the Probate Courtroom.

The other department affected is the Registry of Deeds. A machine that maps property boundaries and title information filed with that office was moved from the basement to the first floor, according to Susan Bulay, registrar of deeds, so that title work by local attorneys would not be affected by the remediation.

The majority of the public who visit the courthouse are not expected to be inconvenienced by the work.