PARIS — A discussion on the town’s Traffic Ordinance Restricting Vehicle Weight sparked another dispute Monday, leading to talk about whether the charge of the Ordinance Review Committee should be amended.

The ordinance was written in 2003 and came under fire at the Sept. 10 meeting when Policy and Procedure Committee Chairman John Richardson explained the ordinance, which the committee had reworded. He said the ordinance wasn’t effectively changed by the new draft but was made easier to understand.

The Board of Selectmen decided to hold a workshop later to create a charge for the policy committee in rewriting the traffic ordinance. They did not set a date.

Selectman Robert Kirchherr suggested adding an amendment granting an exemption to current residences and businesses on weight-restricted roads, but requiring future residents and business owners to apply for exemptions as required by the ordinance.

Chairman Sam Elliot said the ordinance was unacceptable either way, and wouldn’t allow for business in the town to grow. “This idea that you lock things up comes back to bite you,” he said.

He criticized the committee for not talking to business owners when they updated the ordinance.

“There’s nine owners of businesses on Oxford Street, and you’re basically just putting them out of business with this ordinance,” Elliot said. “I wondered if you intended to do that.”

Elliot spent several minutes talking about the ordinance. He criticized it for being difficult to understand, with terms such as “heavily-laden vehicles.”

“I don’t even know what that term means,” Elliot said.

“’Heavily laden’ sounds like something out of Canterbury Tales. So why don’t we just use ‘heavily-loaded’ instead of arcane English.” He criticized the use if the word “pertinent” as well.

Elliot said that if he had a heavy truck, “I wouldn’t have any idea what’s expected of me.”

Selectman Robert Wessels asked what Elliot intended the committee’s role to be, and whether he felt they should be writing an original ordinance.

“The ordinance we received was appropriate for the charge the committee was given,” Kirchherr said. “The board did not say ‘change policy, change procedure.’”

Anne Stanley, a member of the policy committee, said selectmen had viewed the ordinance last year and “it seemed fine. We did not write the ordinance. We simply did what the board asked us to do, which was to update it.” She said going further would have exceeded the committee’s authority.

“We didn’t discuss whether this was a good thing or not, because you thought it was fine, apparently, since 2003.”

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