WILMINGTON — Clinton County Auditor Terry Habermehl announced Monday that his office will be closed August 10-14 due to illness.

“We have been advised that there have been positive cases of COVID-19 reported in the Auditor’s office,” he stated in a news release. “Therefore, I am taking this action out of an abundance of caution to protect both the public and my staff.”

The office will tentatively reopen to the public with access limited by appointment only from August 17- 31.

During this time, Auditor staff will be working remotely to maintain necessary business operations.

“Please be aware that our staff is doing everything we can to ensure that processes continue to occur with the least possible amount of disruption. However, there will be very limited staff in the office to check voice messages and mail, which will result in longer response times than normal,” he said.

Habermehl strongly encourages citizens to take advantage of electronic transaction capabilities such as purchasing dog licenses online at http://www.doglicenses.us/oh/clinton ; purchasing vendors licenses through the Ohio Business Gateway; and electronic filing for deed transfers.

According to the Clinton County Health District, in order to be infected you must have close contact with an individual who has COVID-19. Close contact means being closer than six feet apart for 15 minutes or more while the person was infectious, which applies from two days before any symptoms began.

“We are working closely with the health department, and they will contact individuals if they believe it is appropriate based on contact with our office,” said Habermehl.