LIVERMORE — Selectpersons on Tuesday night discussed adding tiny home requirements to town ordinances.
The state law, LD 1981, passed in 2020 regulating tiny homes, but there has been some clarification from the Office of State Fire Marshal, Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller said.
“The statute allows for a smaller footprint than what our ordinances say,” Miller said. “We can’t be more restrictive than what state law says. I will be doing some more research on this.”
Selectperson Brett Deyling noted that a fire in a tiny home with smaller exits could be a safety concern for the town.
Miller suggested holding off on amending the ordinances until the town’s attorney is on retainer later this year. The ordinances could be voted on during the gubernatorial election in November.
In other business, Miller said he attended a Zoom training with Fire Chief Donald Castonguay, Androscoggin County Emergency Management Agency officials and representatives from other towns in the county.
“Basically, it dealt with responding to natural hazards,” he said. “That includes floods, summer weather, hurricanes, drought, wildfires, intense weather and our ability to react to solar flares, that kind of thing.
“We looked at where our strong points are,” Miller continued. “We are confident in our operations, communications. I think we face challenges in areas such as mass care services, mass search and rescue operations and economic recovery.”
A weatherman and two geologists spoke during the training, Miller said. Earthquakes and landslides were discussed. Although the risk is low for this area they looked at how to react to any major natural events, he added.
The county wants to assess towns to be able to apply for certain grants later, Miller said. “My understanding is that they need to have this work done by the spring of 2024,” he noted. “Next week, it’s going to be hazmat and adversarial situations like active-shooter situations, things like that.
“It was a pretty good experience,” Miller added.
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