HARTFORD — Selectmen voted Thursday night to have the town clerk notify abutters of a request to add a porch and roof to a house on West Cove Drive near Lake Anasagunticook.

Planning Board member Arthur Harvey said board members are not paid and no one has time to notify abutters of requests in shoreland zones, as required by law.

Selectman Lee Holman said some towns pay stipends to planning board members and it might be something the board could recommend to the town.

She said abutters need notification, because some cottages could turn into megamansions if the Planning Board didn’t regulate permits.

“The most invasive species on our lake has two legs,” Holman said.

She and Selectman Zoe Cowett voted to authorize Town Clerk Lianne Bedard to send a letter to abutters notifying them of the building permit request.

Selectmen Jack Plumley was absent Thursday.

The board discussed how to dispose of the condemned waste transfer station on Marble Road off Swan Pond Road. Built in the 1980s, it was ordered closed by the state Department of Environmental Protection last year.

Holman cited a case where the town took ownership of a trailer because  of back taxes. They sold it for $1 to someone who dismantled it and cleaned up the rented lot it was on.

She suggested a similar method could be used for the transfer station property, which has several buildings with lots of wood that could be recycled. The idea was tabled until a full board is present.

Holman also suggested that people who have big trees on their property come forward, because they may have the largest species in the state.

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