RUMFORD – At Thursday night’s board meeting, selectmen unanimously ordered a Prospect Avenue building landlord to evict his tenants within 30 days, then gave him up to six months to fix multiple code violations.

They also gave him up to six months to pay the town’s legal fees associated with the matter.

After listening to the board’s lengthy discussions and final action during a building code hearing, landlord Brian O’Keefe of Chelmsford, Mass., simply said he will also close his apartments at 335 and 337 Franklin St. as of Thursday and evict those tenants.

Those buildings were not part of the hearing, which began at the board’s last meeting on Sept. 18 and were concluded on Thursday night.

At the Sept. 18 hearing, the board tasked fire Chief Gary Wentzell and Code Enforcement Officer Rick Kent with inspecting O’Keefe’s three-unit building at 14 Prospect Ave.

Wentzell was away on vacation on Thursday night, but Kent explained the findings of that inspection. Then, when asked by selectmen, Kent listed what he considered the most serious violations. Among them were the lack of hard-wired smoke detectors in bedrooms, the lack of an exit at the rear of the building, and windows through which an exit couldn’t be made without breaking them.

“There’s no reason why he can’t get egresses on this building in 30 days,” Kent said.

Selectmen, Kent and town lawyer Tom Carey said O’Keefe had been given ample time to correct the issues since Kent first notified him of the problems on July 26, 2007.

Carey told the board that because town officials were aware of the problems but had not forced the landlord to resolve them, the town was liable for the safety of any tenants.

O’Keefe, when given a chance to respond, started by criticizing Kent and others for putting him in his predicament until Town Manager Len Greaney told him to stop criticizing others and address the new inspection list.

O’Keefe responded that he had not seen it yet, then went over it, telling the board what violations he’d already fixed since July 26, 2007.

When Selectmen Rob Cameron asked him when he was going to do the rest of the work, O’Keefe said he’d been told he can’t do any more without first getting permits.

Then, when O’Keefe responded to Cameron’s second question, regarding the possible sale of the building to a tenant, the landlord said that deal fell through. He said his tenant was denied a $10,000 bank loan to fix the violations due to the code violations.

That cemented the board’s action.