Alna town meeting voters on March 21 will consider having a panel explore possible rules on fireworks. Resident Paul Lazarus gathered 46 signatures for a petition that on Feb. 25 led selectmen to send the question to a town vote.

The petition comes a year and a half after Lazarus asked selectmen to draft an ordinance for residents to consider. Board members at the time said they would first want to know if voters wanted one.

The question voters face next month asks if the town will have selectmen direct the planning board or a committee to draft an ordinance on discharging fireworks, in time for the 2016 annual town meeting. Because the planning board deals with land use, it probably would not be the panel doing the work, selectmen said.

The selectmen considered adding a second question to let them draft the ordinance themselves. But Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve said the board could just appoint itself as the committee. Members decided to have the petition question be the lone one voters consider on the matter.

“Let it ride,” Third Selectman David Reingardt said.

Lazarus was not at the meeting. In a telephone interview, the former selectman said he wasn’t proposing what the town should have for fireworks rules.

“That’s not what this is about. I just want to have the discussion,” he said. The planning board or the committee would determine what to propose, he said.

Dozens of other Maine communities have fireworks ordinances, Lazarus said.

Town attorney David Soule has reviewed the town meeting question the petition called for and found no problems with the question’s wording, Town Clerk Amy Warner told selectmen.

All 46 signatures on the petition were valid, Warner said. To get the question on the town meeting warrant, Lazarus needed just 42 signatures, equal to 10 percent of local turnout in the last gubernatorial election, Warner said.

Town office projects sought

If voters go along, the town office will get a new oil tank, several window replacements and hard-wiring for smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Selectmen decided to ask for $15,000, to do the some of the $65,895 in maintenance projects that resident and restoration expert Les Fossel identified as priorities for the building.

The top priority should be replacing the oil tank, Abbott said. “One thing we don’t want is an oil spill.”

Fossel’s list also includes a new furnace, projected at $8,625, and an exterior paint job that Villeneuve said the town should be able to do for less than the $17,250 Fossel cites in a Feb. 25 letter following his inspection.

“For that price, we could almost get ... something we don’t have to paint,” Villeneuve said.

In other budget work, selectmen decided against asking voters to carry over $7,000 from last year’s budget, to train First Responders if any volunteers appear. The local First Responders program was set to shut down after Saturday, Feb. 28. Fire Chief Mike Trask had asked for the money to stay available and, on Feb. 19, Reingardt and Abbott voiced no opposition. But on Feb. 25, Villeneuve, who missed the earlier meeting, spoke against it.

“No, no. You got rid of your organization. How can they have it both ways,” he said. No one from the Alna Fire Department, which has been unable to find volunteers to continue the program, was at the Feb. 25 meeting.

The untapped $7,000 will instead go into the town’s surplus, Abbott said. If volunteers come forward for First Responders, the board could call a special town meeting to fund the training, he said.

Reached Feb. 26, Trask noted the board previously had no problem with keeping the money available. “They’re very indecisive,” he said.