JAY – What state laws do selectmen want the new building inspector/deputy code enforcement officer to enforce under the direction of the town’s code enforcement officer?

There was no simple answer Monday night. Some selectmen said they wanted minimum enforcement. Some residents agreed with them.

Currently, the town enforces certain state laws after receiving a complaint. Voters have rejected having building permits for years, but state law passed this year will require Jay to adopt a building code and have a permitting system by 2012.

Selectmen set a date for a workshop on the issue for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, at the town office.

Before James Butler of Jay begins his part-time enforcement duties, selectmen need to give him the authorization to act, Town Manager Ruth Marden told the board.

Several of the town’s ordinances already provide this authority, but there are several state regulations that the town has optional authority to enforce and these must be authorized by the board, she said.

Based on the board’s decisions, the job description for the new position will be drafted.

The need for a building inspector came to light last year after a state investigator came to town and asked to see the town’s building inspector. The town didn’t have one.

State law requires any town with 2,000 or more residents to have a building inspector to inspect each new building during construction to ensure all fire safeguards are met, including those involving chimneys, flues and wall construction.

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

On Monday, Marden gave selectmen motions to review.

The first one was to authorize the building inspector/deputy code officer to enforce all of the state statutes that must be enforced under state law, including but not limited to those pertaining to gravel pits, cemetery (excavation and construction outside legal limits), inspections on construction and fire safety, and establish a building notification fee.

A second motion would authorize a deputy code enforcement officer, under the direction of the code enforcement officer, to enforce the following laws or town ordinances pertaining to: junkyard/automobile graveyard, dangerous buildings, miscellaneous nuisance, swimming pool, erosion and sedimentation control, day-care and boarding care facilities, enforcement of state manufactured housing board rules, asbestos, backyard burning of household trash, shoreland zoning, flood hazard development, subdivision regulations, roads, setbacks and signs and any other ordinances instituted by the town. These will be enforced by action of the code officer or deputy code officer.

Town ordinances should be enforced, Marden said. The others are laws or regulations that the board has somewhat of a choice on but that Butler should have the ability to enforce if there is an issue, she said.

“Do we really want to pay him to stick his nose in other people’s business?” Selectman Tom Goding asked.

Resident Tim DeMillo said there is a thin line between trying to have safe buildings and telling people how they should be living.

It is up to selectmen to decide what they want enforced, Marden said, but they really need to authorize code officers to enforce state laws, even if some of them are enforced only by complaint.