HEBRON – The Planning Board will hold a public informational meeting Thursday to discuss and clarify new building codes. Taxpayers will vote on these codes at the annual town meeting next month.
The informational meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Town Office.
Gary Kyllonen, board chairman, said Tuesday that the two proposed codes are voluminous, and the board wanted residents to be better informed.
“There are two books, and each is 2-inches thick,” he said. “There is a lot of information in there. It’s easier to have an informational meeting than tie up the town meeting with a lot of questions.”
The annual town meeting will be March 18 at the Hebron Station School beginning at 10 a.m.
The proposed codes for adoption by residents are the International Residential Code and the International Building Code, 2003 versions. They were developed by the International Code Council and serve as comprehensive guides to residential and commercial construction.
The International Code Council is comprised of building experts including engineers, architects, and electricians, among others.
The state has already adopted the two books as its building codes. “Those are the codes they would like towns to use,” Kyllonen said.
If residents vote to adopt the new codes, they will replace existing ordinances. The town’s code enforcement officer, Robert Swift, told the Planning Board that Hebron needs updated building codes, Kyllonen said.
“It was brought to us through the code enforcement officer. He felt as though the building code we have today is real old. We’ve updated a bit here and there over the years, but there should be some more standardized measure of building,” he said. “The code enforcement officer said this is what he recommended we look at, for him to do his job better.
“We want to make things structurally safe and sound.”
Comments are no longer available on this story