LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted unanimously Monday to ask the Planning Board to re-evaluate a property maintenance ordinance and try to make it more town-oriented before sending it back to voters.

Residents rejected the proposed property maintenance ordinance by a 87-200 vote on June 11. The ordinance proposed adopting an international property maintenance code. It would have regulated the interiors and exteriors of residences and properties.

The Planning Board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 19, at the Town Office. The board meets every third Wednesday of the month at the same time and place, Planning Board Vice Chairman Bruce Adams said.

Prior to the vote, Town Manager Kristal Flagg said that she and Code Enforcement Officer James Butler Jr. had been working on a few properties and had been waiting to see if the proposed property maintenance ordinance had passed.

When it failed, she said they sent certified letters to the three properties owners who have the most complaints lodged against them notifying them they are not in compliance with the state junkyard law.

It is not just junk cars and junk, it is appliances and rubbish around the property, Flagg said.

The property owners have 30 days to comply with the law. If they don’t, the town can decide to take them to court.

One of the residents she spoke to said he should be able to put anything he wants to on his front lawn, she said.

Flagg said she tried to explain that the other property owners pay their taxes and don’t want to live next to a property that has junk around it.

“There is no easy answer to this,” she said.

In the past, Lewiston had a cleanup day, she said, and suggested maybe Livermore Falls would want to do the same, even though it is a cost to the town. It would allow people to get rid of junk at no cost to the person disposing of it.

Selectmen Chairman Bill Demaray, who was re-elected to serve another year Monday, said the problem is that people won’t get rid of the junk and it would not send a message to them that the town is not going to stand for violations.

The majority of the people in the town take care of their property, he said. The town does not have a lot of ordinances that deal with these types of situations, he said.

Selectman Louise Chabot said one person she spoke to voted for the property maintenance ordinance because he was fed up with the problem.

“My feeling is to go back to the Planning Board,” Chabot said. “We don’t have to have it is so confined that we have to have screens on every window.”

The failed ordinance required screens be on windows in residences.

People just want to have a good-looking town, she said.

Butler took notes at the public hearing on what people wanted to have addressed, Demaray said. He suggested selectmen ask the Planning Board to develop an ordinance to address the town’s needs.

“We do need something,” he said. “The thing I didn’t like about the ordinance was a reference to a book and didn’t tell people what was required.”

The proposed ordinance referenced a code but did not include it in the ordinance. People would have had to look up the 32-page code or visit a place where the book was located.

“If you want people to clean up their lawns, have a lawn ordinance,” resident George Cummings said.

Residents and the board discussed when the ordinance should go back before voters. Cummings said they should wait until the June 2014 town meeting.

“I think if you are smart, you’ll wait until next year. I don’t think they’ll buy into anything too quickly,” he said.

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