Two main facts have been making it hard for the Alna Planning Board to propose local rules on fireworks use: Enforcement could be a problem and, other than Paul Lazarus —  whose petition called for an ordinance to be drafted —  board members said no one has come to them with any problems fireworks have caused in town.

Members cited those two points Dec. 7 in explaining why, so far, the panel does not expect to propose an ordinance to voters in March 2016. Instead, the proposal may be to keep relying on state rules that govern consumer fireworks use.

If so, enforcement would be up to state or county law enforcement, members said at Monday night’s public hearing, inside the fire station. If the town added its own rules, responsibility for enforcement might go the code enforcement officer or other town official, or the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, but the sheriff’s office would need a written deal with the town to enforce local rules, board members said.

Trask said he wouldn’t be enforcing rules such as the permit Lazarus suggested, akin to the permits people get to burn brush. The state forest service or other agency enforces those, Trask said.

“I don’t have a badge or a gun, so I don’t enforce much,” Trask said at the hearing.

Trask, Lazarus, two other residents and two reporters made up the audience.

Board Chairman Sean Day told Lazarus he would research the fireworks permit idea in time for the board to discuss it in January. In proposing it, Lazarus noted that Alna is heavily wooded; that can add to the fire risk, especially on a dry day, he argued.

Fireworks are fire, pyrotechnics like those that burned a nightclub, Lazarus said. “It’s dangerous stuff ... It’s got to be brought under control.”

No one has blamed a wildfire, loose livestock or other incident on fireworks, board member Peter Tischbein said. “It’s just you. So we have to sort of gauge your lone voice versus an ordinance with all the baggage that would come along with it,” he told Lazarus.

Lazarus recalled another resident bringing up livestock concerns about fireworks at the 2015 town meeting. He also noted that, unlike an Alna Head Tide Dam Committee set for the next night, no town email announced the fireworks hearing. A public notice was issued and the planning board is following state law on how to proceed with an ordinance, Tischbein said.

Day doubted the state would go for adding a permit process to its own rules on consumer use. So that brings the question back to one of enforcement at the local level, board members said. Other towns with local rules tend to have their own police forces and full-time code officers, Tishbein said.

“We sort of said (the lack of those is) going to be problematic,” he said.

For lack of enforcement, the ordinance would just be a hollow one, he said. That’s a problem the board has run into with some other rules in town, he added.

Resident Terry Ross told the board Monday night that fireworks can be annoying but he doesn’t want to see an ordinance.. “Other people have rights, too,” Ross said. “I’m still alive. I might have lost five or 10 minutes of sleep. Big deal.”