NORWAY — Town Manager Dennis Lajoie told selectmen Thursday that more than two dozen people have applied for the vacant code enforcement officer position.
He said in the past year Code Enforcement Officer Scott Tabb handled 154 building permits and each requires a follow-up inspection. The caseload means the town requires a full-time code enforcement officer and cannot contract with one from a neighboring community, he said. Though he added that Norway, Paris and Oxford have in the past had an agreement to help each other.
Lajoie expects to review the applications and begin interviews in the next couple of weeks.
For the interim, the town agreed to hire Kingston Brown as code enforcement officer and licensed plumbing inspector through June 30. Brown has worked in code enforcement for Paris, Woodstock, West Paris and Buckfield.
In other business, the board accepted an additional $306.22 from the American Rescue Plan Act awarded by the state. The board also accepted a $560 grant from the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry for a hose and five 5-gallon backpack firefighting pumps.
The schedule to discuss the proposed municipal budget for next year was adopted. Meetings are planned to be held each Monday beginning March 7 at 6 p.m. and continue through April 4 with different departments considered at each meeting. For example, the police and fire department budgets will be discussed March 14.
Board approval of the proposed budget is expected by April 21. Residents will have their say at the annual Town Meeting in June.
The kickoff meeting on the new downtown and comprehensive plan is scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 p.m. via Zoom. Additional committee members will be sought after the kickoff.
Lajoie plans to offer ideas for using some of the town’s allotment of American Rescue Plan Act money at its next meeting. Some of the projects include the website, remote meeting equipment, town office telephone wiring and COVID-19 testing.
Other projects Lajoie has been juggling include future roadwork, sewer line upgrades, overseeing completion of the highway garage, and upgrades and expansion of the municipal complex.
The board had high praise for Lajoie’s efforts.
“I think the number of projects that you have undertaken has been amazing,” Selectman Thomas Curtis said. “Not only in the number of them, but the dollar value of what you have done. You’ve done an amazing job. The town should be eternally grateful for what you have accomplished.”
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