JAY – Selectmen are scheduled Tuesday to continue discussion on a deputy code inspector position and get an update on a state panel’s proposed recommendation to develop uniform statewide building codes.

Selectmen also plan to discuss how sewer rates will be assessed for the 2008-09 year with Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt.

Town Manager Ruth Marden said selectmen will just discuss the matter and won’t be setting the sewer rate for the next fiscal year then.

Last year, selectmen agreed to explore options for the coming year’s sewer fees by looking at water use and the feasibility of setting up a five-year rotation cycle of pumping residents’ septic systems to compensate taxpayers who are not on public sewer but pay for it through taxation. Those were among the ideas discussed by people and town officials at the meeting in January 2007.

The sewer user rate is $210 per unit. The remaining revenue needed to cover the budget comes out of town-wide taxation.

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 29, at the Jay-Niles Memorial Library in North Jay.

Selectmen will also continue discussion on the town’s need for a part-time deputy code enforcement officer position, which would cover junkyards and building inspections pertaining to fire safety.

Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring said she has sent selectmen information on Resolve 46, which was passed by the legislative Business, Research and Economic Development Committee last spring.

Ring said she plans to discuss the Resolve 46 Committee’s recommendation with selectmen, which the state Resolve 46 Committee will present to the legislative committee Thursday afternoon.

Resolve 46 directed state agencies to develop a proposal that would implement building codes and resolve conflicts between building codes and other related codes, Ring said.

“The aim of the committee is to establish statewide building and energy codes,” Ring said. “These codes would be overseen at the state level by a technical building codes board. As proposed, the codes would not be amendable at the local level.”

The Resolve 46 Committee is also recommending mandated enforcement of the codes in towns with a population over 2,000, she said, which would include Jay.

While funding is proposed for the technical building codes board at the state level and for training functions, funding for code enforcement at the local level is assumed to be paid through building permit fees that would be established and collected locally, Ring said.

The town may end up with a mandated building code that will need to be enforced, Marden said, regardless of townspeople wanting it or not.