NEW VINEYARD – Voters refused to amend the town’s building permit ordinance during the annual town meeting Saturday. More than 80 residents attended the meeting.

Townspeople are not required to obtain a building permit if what they plan to build is under 200 square feet. Some members of the Planning Board wanted to see the ordinance changed to state that a notification application would need to be filed. There would be no fee unless the construction was more than 200 square feet.

Chairwoman Donna Holbrook said the purpose was to notify selectmen and the assistant assessor of any construction so property owners would be justly taxed. She said the ordinance would not apply to dog houses, steps, fences, or ice shacks.

Board member Wayne Drake pointed out that while the current Planning Board may understand these exceptions, it is not spelled out in the wording of the ordinance. He questioned what would happen when there were new board members.

The proposed ordinance amendment simply states: “Notification required for all construction. Before any construction begins for anything under 200 square feet a notification form must be completed.”

Drake also pointed out that there is no penalty specific to this clause and it would be too difficult to enforce the rule. “This is going to be a major headache,” Drake said.

Resident Randy Bates said he does not believe the town is losing major money due to such construction. He referred to selectmen Chairwoman Fay Adams’ statements at the beginning of the meeting that townspeople are quite good about notifying officials when they become aware of any new construction.

Adams implored voters to approve $3,500 to pay Assistant Assessor Steve Grant. Voters agreed, but decided to have a separate article put on the town warrant next year to vote whether they want an assistant assessor. Adams said while selectmen are also assessors of the town they do not have the knowledge to do such work.

Adams said it cost the town $33,000 to evaluate the entire town in 2001. That company wanted about $9,200 per year to keep the valuations up to date. “If we don’t have someone to keep us on line, we could face this cost again in 10 years,” Adams said.

Adams said while Grant does not evaluate a certain percentage of the town each year, he uses information from the Planning Board and resident reports to check properties.

Adams said Grant assists the town in many other ways as well, such as printing tax bills and troubleshooting computer problems.

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