JAY – Selectmen will be asked Monday to consider when they want certificates of occupancy to become effective for new construction and repairs.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22 at the town office.

On Sept. 8, the the board voted to authorize building inspector James Butler to enforce state laws regarding inspecting new construction and repairs to protect people against fire.

State law requires a town of 2,000-plus residents to have a building inspector to check each new buildings during construction to see that safeguards against fire are used, that chimneys and flues are safe and that cutoffs are placed between wall and floor timbers where fire would be likely to spread.

The law also requires the inspection of all buildings during repairs, and stipulates that a new building may not be occupied until the building inspector has issued a certificate of occupancy.

The next step is to find out when selectmen want to start issuing occupancy certificates, Code Enforcement Officer Shiloh Ring said Friday.

When people came in the spring and asked if there were building permits or certificates of occupancy and there wasn’t, Ring said, they started construction.

Butler and Ring are in the process of developing an inspection checklist for occupancies.

People papering or painting walls or doing other cosmetic improvement will not need an inspection, Butler said. But those who plan renovations that affect load-bearing walls and other structural changes will need to be inspected, he said.

The board will also need to set a date to hold a life safety workshop to decide how they want to enforce those regulations, Ring said.

They’ll also be looking at setting up a building permit system that will need to go before voters before it is approved, she said.

In other business Monday, selectmen will review road ordinance recommendations, consider options on heating for the former town office for winter and hear concerns about sewer line issues, among other items.