FARMINGTON — Selectmen voted Tuesday to hold a public hearing Feb. 9 on a proposed dog barking ordinance before bringing it to residents at the March town meeting.

A draft ordinance brought before the board raised questions on clarity of wording, an appeal process for dog owners, the legality of it and ability to enforce the ordinance if it is enacted. The draft was based on one used in Gorham and the board directed town staff to find answers to those questions for the hearing.

The proposed ordinance limits any dog owner within the town from keeping a dog that creates a nuisance by continued or repeated barking, howling or making other loud noises, and/or disturbing the peace of any person, Town Manager Richard Davis said.

Following a written complaint and investigation, another violation could make the owner subject to penalties of at least $50 but not more than $250. Further violations would be assessed for at least $50 more than the cost of the previous violation. Penalties payable to the town.

While the present town animal control ordinance has little reference to dogs other than cleaning of dog feces on town streets, a Whittier Road resident inquired about including an ordinance for dog barking after the serenity of his neighborhood changed when the owners of 19 sled dogs and one house dog moved in.

Dave Lucas told the board he moved back to the area three years ago to raise his family. Last August, new neighbors moved in and established a kennel for their dogs behind their house, 150 feet from his window, he said.

He played a recording of the dogs barking and another of their howling, often heard at feeding time, sometimes starting at 6:30 a.m. and Monday at 4:40 a.m., waking his family, he said.

“There are no words to describe it,” he said.

The neighbor, Jean Perron, faces 38 court citations for civil violations of disturbing the peace as an owner of barking dogs based on neighbors complaints, she told the board.

According to court records, she appeared on eight of those citations last Friday and sought a hearing before a judge. The other citations are expected to be filed in February.

“Feeding time is noisy for anyone owning multiple dogs,” she told the board. She explained that the dogs howl when they hear a police car, ambulance or firetruck on Route 2.

Perron questioned how neighbors hear the dogs when her private kennel is behind her house and she doesn’t hear it in her kitchen, she said.

Selectman Jon Bubier told her the board was not there to judge or prosecute the issue.

The board agreed that there are people all over town either owning dogs or listening to neighbor’s dogs. Members said they were not there to focus on one road, but it may have brought the subject to the surface.

They also agreed that some wording in the draft copy needed to be clear and the legality of it researched.

A dog owner should also have some way to appeal the process and present their side, Selectman Ryan Morgan said. “Then it’s up to the voters to decide,” he told the neighbors.

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