RUMFORD – Dog walkers beware. Be sure you have a baggie available to pick up your animal’s droppings.
Selectmen on Thursday voted unanimously to post signs warning dog owners that they are subject to fines ranging from $50 to $500 whenever a dog is not on a leash with its owner, and whenever animal feces is left behind.
Signs to that effect will be posted in several areas throughout town. Among them, the banking along Canal Street, the walking trail along the Swift River, Stephens High School Memorial Park, the traffic islands at the top of Falls Hill, and possibly at the library, Virginia Elementary School, the information center and other places dogs have been known to leave droppings.
“Some people are faithful about cleaning up after their dogs,” said Selectman Eugene Boivin. But others are not, he and board Chairman Jim Thibodeau said.
The fines, which are part of the town’s bylaws, can be applied to any part of the dog ordinance, said Town Manager Robert Welch.
Complaints have been coming in that dog feces are being found more and more frequently in many areas of town, including along the downtown sidewalks.
The postings are meant to remind people of what it might cost if they don’t have their pets on leashes or if excrement is found some place other than on the dog owner’s property.
Welch has said that if excrement is not cleaned up, dogs may be banned from several places where their owners often take them for walks. Right now, dogs are banned from tiny Morency Park along the banks of the Androscoggin River.
In other matters on Thursday, the board agreed to send a letter of appreciation to the students of the forestry program at the Region 9 School of Applied Technology in thanks for harvesting trees at the new industrial/business park site.
They also:
• awarded the contract for the purchase of a new sidewalk asphalt roller to Central Equipment Co. of Stillwater, at a cost of $13,377.
• set a public hearing on the town’s Pine Tree Zones for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 20.
• thanked the Maine Department of Transportation for providing two picnic tables at the information center.
• donated $100 to the Community Concerts Association.
• approved 32 innholder and victualer’s licenses, a parade permit for Memorial Day, and granted two hawkers’ and peddlers’ licenses for Farmers Market vendors.
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