LIVERMORE FALLS — Planning Board members voted on May 21 to request the selectmen form three committees, each with five members and two alternates, to draft three ordinances to replace two that voters rejected last month.

At the annual town meeting referendum vote on April 29, the new Livermore Falls Animal Control and Dog Control Ordinance failed by a vote of 278 to 86. At a public hearing on April 1, many said its rules were too restrictive.

The amended Livermore Falls Solar Energy Systems Ordinance was opposed 198 to 154. The Planning Board approved the amendments in January. There were no questions or concerns raised about it at the April 1 meeting.

“I went to the Transfer Station about a week before this went to vote, there was a lady with signs,” Tim Fournier, a Planning Board member noted. He tried to correct her, explain it was not meant to shut farms down. He also spoke with some Amish who were concerned. “I just want to know where do we go from here,” he asked.

Code Enforcement Officer Rick Haas said committees need to be put together for each ordinance that have different parts of the populace involved, make that well announced, visible. Those who want to have a say of what is being done, they can come and be heard and be part of the process, he noted. The proposed ordinances go to Planning Board for approval, then go to the Select Board for approval before being voted on by the town, he stated.

The committees should include a couple people for and a couple of people opposed, Fournier suggested.

“You never make everybody happy,” Haas stressed. “It’s a matter of everybody being able to say that this is what they think, and then everybody works on it as a group. The ordinance comes back to you for review and discussion, and then you can make changes as you see fit as a board.”

Proposed ordinances are not available for viewing until they go to the Select Board, then the public hearing, Town Manager Carrie Castonguay explained when asked. “All of these things happen technically, in committees,” she said. “It’s not an official, publicly noticed meeting. Any committee for whatever purpose needs to be established by the Select Board, and there has to be a distinct charge for that committee and the committee membership is directed by the Select Board as well.”

Haas recommended having separate animal control and dog control ordinances. “If the animal one doesn’t pass, then we’ve lost the dog one,” he noted.

There should be a stipulation that if committee members have a certain number of unexcused absences it results in removal from the committee, Haas stated.

Planning Board member Carole Barker said the committees should have one member from the Select  and Planning boards and three from the public.

Code Enforcement Officer update

Haas said he has made around 28 site visits where he has made contact with the property owner or left a card on their door. “I start with green,” he noted. “Second visit is yellow, third visit is red. There’s been some where I’ve met the homeowner there. We’ve had a discussion about why I’m there, what I’m looking for, what needs to be done.”

Reasons for stopping are for a property maintenance ordinance issue, rental housing code, State of Maine junkyard statute, building codes, shoreland zoning ordinances, Haas said. When he sees a structure under construction, he stops and asks if they were able to get permits for it. “I explain that I know how it’s been sporadic with code here, ask if they could stop in at their convenience and fill one out at no charge so we have record of what’s going on on the property,” he noted.

“I would have thought that would have been very easy to do, but that’s met a tremendous amount of resistance,” Haas stated.

Of the 28 properties visited, eight people have responded, he noted. Five have done everything they’ve been asked to do and the other three are working on it, he noted.

“When you go from no rules to having rules people are going to get their feathers ruffled, and there’s going to be people that don’t like it,” Haas noted. “There’s going to be people that welcome it. And I would venture to say that you’re going to have more people that want it.”

Resident Michael Shea suggested a mass mailing to residents introducing Haas and providing information on the rules. “They wouldn’t feel so blindsided,” he said. “People feel attacked because you knocked on their door.”

“We have an active web page, it’s been all updated with current information,” Planning Board Secretary Gayle Long noted. Haas could be introduced there and on the town’s Facebook page, she stated.

Resident John Benedetto said there seems to be bewilderment among town officials on why people are opposed to some things being proposed. People don’t want government overage, he noted. Have open discussions, people don’t know what is going on, he stated.

Benedetto commended having the website updated. “It will take time for people to start using it as a resource,” he added.