diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 34e6454af..0a9f294ee 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -369,37 +369,8 @@
         </site>
     </distributionManagement>
 
-    <repositories>
-        <repository>
-            <id>smx.m2</id>
-            <name>Apache ServiceMix M2</name>
-            <url>https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/servicemix/m2-repo/</url>
-        </repository>
-        <!-- Apache snapshots -->
-        <repository>
-            <id>apache-snapshots</id>
-            <name>Apache Snapshots Repository</name>
-            <url>https://repository.apache.org/content/groups/snapshots-group</url>
-            <releases>
-                <enabled>false</enabled>
-            </releases>
-            <snapshots>
-                <enabled>true</enabled>
-            </snapshots>
-        </repository>
-        <!-- OPS4J SNAPSHOT repository -->
-        <repository>
-            <id>ops4j.sonatype.snapshots.deploy</id>
-            <name>OPS4J snapshot repository</name>
-            <url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/ops4j-snapshots/</url>
-            <releases>
-                <enabled>false</enabled>
-            </releases>
-            <snapshots>
-                <enabled>true</enabled>
-            </snapshots>
-        </repository>
-    </repositories>
+    <!-- UNOMI-971: no project repositories — Central + Apache snapshots come from the parent POM.
+         Extra repos (ServiceMix SVN, OPS4J Sonatype snapshots) stalled CI on dead hosts. -->
 
     <modules>
         <module>bom</module>
diff --git a/services/src/main/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManager.java b/services/src/main/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManager.java
index 27178469b..8f3bd41a4 100644
--- a/services/src/main/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManager.java
+++ b/services/src/main/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManager.java
@@ -47,6 +47,13 @@ public class TaskExecutionManager {
     private final Map<String, Set<String>> executingTasksByType;
     private final Map<String, LockRenewalHandle> activeLockRenewals = new ConcurrentHashMap<>();
     private final AtomicBoolean running = new AtomicBoolean(false);
+    /**
+     * Set at the start of {@link #shutdown()} before canceling in-flight work. Failures that race
+     * with shutdown must not schedule retries: {@link ScheduledExecutorService#isShutdown()} only
+     * flips after {@code scheduler.shutdown()}, which runs after {@code future.cancel(true)} and
+     * can race with {@link #handleTaskError}.
+     */
+    private final AtomicBoolean shuttingDown = new AtomicBoolean(false);
     private ScheduledFuture<?> taskCheckerFuture;
     private SchedulerServiceImpl schedulerService;
     private TaskExecutorRegistry executorRegistry;
@@ -776,8 +783,10 @@ private void handleTaskError(ScheduledTask task, String error, long startTime) {
         metricsManager.updateMetric(TaskMetricsManager.METRIC_TASKS_EXECUTION_TIME, executionTime);
 
         if (scheduleRetry) {
-            // Only schedule retry if scheduler is not shutting down
-            if (!scheduler.isShutdown() && !scheduler.isTerminated()) {
+            // Only schedule retry if this manager is not shutting down. Check shuttingDown before
+            // scheduler.isShutdown(): canceling in-flight futures can invoke handleTaskError before
+            // scheduler.shutdown() runs, which would otherwise queue a retry that fires after teardown.
+            if (!shuttingDown.get() && !scheduler.isShutdown() && !scheduler.isTerminated()) {
                 try {
                     Runnable retryTask = () -> {
                         TaskExecutor executor = executorRegistry.getExecutor(task.getTaskType());
@@ -844,6 +853,8 @@ public void cancelTask(String taskId) {
      * Shuts down the execution manager
      */
     public void shutdown() {
+        // Mark before canceling futures so in-flight failures cannot schedule retries.
+        shuttingDown.set(true);
         stopTaskChecker();
 
         // Stop all lock heartbeats so held locks age out and peers can recover the work
diff --git a/services/src/test/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManagerTest.java b/services/src/test/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManagerTest.java
index 582ecb938..bafcc5356 100644
--- a/services/src/test/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManagerTest.java
+++ b/services/src/test/java/org/apache/unomi/services/impl/scheduler/TaskExecutionManagerTest.java
@@ -324,8 +324,22 @@ public void testHandleTaskErrorSkipsRetryScheduleDuringShutdown() throws Excepti
 
         executionManager.executeTask(task, executor);
         assertTrue(inFlight.await(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS));
+        // Ignore the stubbing / any pre-shutdown registry lookups; we only care about retries after shutdown.
+        clearInvocations(executorRegistry);
+        // Release the in-flight task shortly after shutdown starts so awaitTermination can finish
+        // without waiting the full timeout (shutdown cancels futures then awaits the pool).
+        Thread releaser = new Thread(() -> {
+            try {
+                Thread.sleep(50);
+            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
+                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
+            }
+            allowFail.countDown();
+        }, "shut-retry-releaser");
+        releaser.setDaemon(true);
+        releaser.start();
         executionManager.shutdown();
-        allowFail.countDown();
+        releaser.join(2000);
         Thread.sleep(200);
         assertEquals(ScheduledTask.TaskStatus.SCHEDULED, task.getStatus());
         assertEquals(1, task.getFailureCount());