NEWRY — The Board of Selectmen continued discussion Tuesday evening on revising an ordinance to reduce the size of the Planning Board, Administrator Loretta Powers said Wednesday afternoon.
In a Dec. 4 email to Powers, Planning Board Chairman Patrick Roma said the board often doesn’t have enough members for a quorum to conduct business at its meetings.
“It’s just a small ordinance change that’s required, but we needed to double-check to see if a public hearing was necessary to make that change,” Powers said. “The board does need to schedule a public hearing, so the next step is to schedule a date for the hearing.”
Powers said the Planning Board has struggled to get a quorum many times.
“Sometimes, it’s hard for people to get there, because a lot of the members work out of town, so getting to the meeting can be difficult,” she said.
Proposed changes the Planning Board include:
* Lowering the number of members from seven regular and one alternate to five members and two alternates.
* Changing the quorum requirement from five to three.
* Clarifying that the reduction in numbers will occur via attrition.
* Adding a section defining what constitutes a vacancy.
* Removing a section that states comprehensive planning is a board responsibility.
In other business, Powers said selectmen voted to begin working on the budget at 5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15.
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