JAY – Selectmen took no action Tuesday on adopting a draft job description for a deputy code enforcement officer/building inspector/local plumbing inspector and factoring in an estimated $21,739 that it would cost for the part-time position.

Instead, selectmen want to think more about it, get feedback from residents and get more information from Town Manager Ruth Marden about whether a building permit notification process would need to be established.

State law requires towns with 2,000 or more residents to have a building inspector to inspect each new building during construction to ensure that “all proper safeguards against the catching or spreading of fire are used, the chimneys and flues are made safe, and that proper cutoffs are placed between the timbers and walls and floorings where fire would be likely to spread,” according to the state manual.

It also requires a building inspector to exercise similar authority regarding repairs to existing structures.

The issue of having a building inspector came to light last year after a state fire inspector asked to see the town’s building inspector.

The town has an environmental Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring, who oversees environmental compliance of industry under the town’s Environmental Control and Improvement Ordinance. She is paid through permit fees.

She also is doing her best to keep up with junkyard complaints, subdivision ordinance, shoreland zoning and floodplain management ordinances among others. She gets help from Town Clerk Ronda Palmer but both women have their own workloads.

The town also has a part-time plumbing inspector.

The duties for building inspector, deputy code officer and plumbing inspector could be rolled into one description, Marden said.

“We need to know how far you want to go with enforcement,” Marden said.

If they don’t have the board’s backing for enforcement of junkyard laws and other town ordinances and state laws, why bother, Marden said.

“We’ve got a lot of people around town unhappy we are not enforcing these,” Marden said.

Ring would supervise the person, if that’s the way selectmen decide to go, Marden said.

Some laws may be enforced and some laws must be enforced, she said.

Now, if someone complains about a junkyard issue, they will visit the site but they don’t go out looking for junkyard issues, Ring said.

“Do we really want someone looking into our business?” resident Tom Goding asked.

He suggested bare minimum for enforcement.

“We’re really getting into a whole basket of worms. Once you get into it, you cannot get out of it,” Goding said.

Marden said she believes the town needs a building inspector to take care of tenants’ complaints for life-safety issues such as exposed wires and blocked entrances or exits.

There is nothing stopping tenants from moving to another building, Goding said.

Livermore Falls has building permits, as do other towns, and inspections vary, Marden said.

The draft budget for the position calls for 16 hours a week at $18 an hour, with an addition four hours factored in for inspections if needed.

The item will be addressed again at the next selectmen’s meeting.