PARIS — The following topics were discussed at the March 26 meeting of the Board of Selectmen:
Norway-Paris police meeting
The board agreed to meet with Norway selectmen next week to hear ideas from Paris police Chief David Verrier and Norway Chief Robert Federico on potential ways the departments could cooperate and save money for taxpayers.
Federico said Wednesday that he and Verrier have put a lot of work into the presentation and will lay out options for interdepartmental cooperation. The meeting will be at the Paris Fire Station at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 2. The public is welcome to attend.
Subdivision
Selectmen were informed that in 2008, a Paris resident sold off a piece of land he had owned for less than five years, a violation of subdivision law. According to Code Enforcement Officer Gerald Samson, the landowner was two months shy of the five-year minimum for selling off sections of a home.
The code enforcement officer at the time issued a building permit, and there is now a house there. The owner paid cash, built the home with his own funding and never had the title searched, Samson said. Six months ago, the owner of that house, who was not named, applied for a mortgage to pay for an expansion to the building.
The bank ran a title search and found the land had been subdivided illegally. Samson said the homeowner was unaware that any ordinance had been violated.
George “Buddy” Coffren of the Planning Board said he was concerned it could set a precedent. “Do you just tell builders, ‘Just build all you want, and after you’re done, come and see us?’ Because that’s basically what happened.” He said the landowner was circumventing the rules.
Samson said the property has been marked for review. The homeowner must have a survey done of the lot. Samson said the odds were low of this happening without someone catching it. Samson said he didn’t believe it would set a precedent to refrain from penalizing the man. “The town would be in the position of having to approve a building and now telling a person he has to remove it.”
The board voted to defer to Samson’s recommendation that the town approve the building addition.
Raking in nature preserve
Conservation Committee Chairwoman Franca Ainsworth passed on a message from committee member Murad Sayen that an area of the trail in the Cornwall Nature Preserve had been raked of leaves recently.
“Those leaves are what keep … people from slipping and sliding” during mud season, Ainsworth said. She said that if people want to help out at the preserve to ask the Conservation Committee what work needs to be done.
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