Voters in Pittston will have the chance to approve changes to an ordinance governing the sale of tax-acquired properties and to put in place ordinances outlining the town’s animal control officer’s duties and placing mailboxes on town roads at a special town meeting Wednesday.

Pittston’s ordinance on selling tax-acquired properties requires that parcels must be sold individually.

Selectwoman Jean Ambrose said the town currently has three tax-acquired properties that on their own do not conform to lot-size standards.

“If we put the three parcels together into one lot, someone could do something with them,” Ambrose said. Because the town ordinance doesn’t allow for that, she said, it had to be changed.

The town’s Ordinance Review Committee has been working since summer on the Domestic Animal Control Ordinance. In 1984, the town enacted a barking or howling dog ordinance at a special town meeting to set standards about domestic animal noise.

The proposed ordinance sets out more comprehensive regulations for keeping domestic animals within town limits, including requiring residents to show proof their dogs have been immunized against rabies, forbidding dogs to run free unless they are hunting and defining what a dangerous dog is. It also spells out the responsibilities of the town’s animal control officer.

Advertisement

Roger Linton, chairman of the Pittston Board of Selectmen, said more importantly, it clarifies that the town’s animal control officer deals only with domestic animals, while wild animals are the responsibility of others, the state’s game wardens, for instance.

The third proposal would spell out the requirements for placing mailboxes in the rights of way of town roads.

Linton said Road Commissioner Sam Snow recently attended a conference where he learned about restrictions placed on the installation of mailbox posts.

“Towns can be held legally responsible if people put up posts and things that might send a plow truck across a road,” Linton said.

Large posts or iron bars would constitute a hazard if struck by a plow or a passenger vehicle, Linton said.

“A life is more important than a post that can be fixed,” he said.

Advertisement

Anything bigger than a 4-inch-by-4-inch post has to have holes in it, Ambrose said, so it will break off if struck and not cause serious bodily injury.

“We thought it was best to have this,” she said.

The special town meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Pittston Town Office, at 38 Whitefield Road. Only those town residents who are registered to vote may vote.

Jessica Lowell — 621-5632

jlowell@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @JLowellKJ


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.