Alna residents may learn in February whether or not they’ll face a vote on local fireworks rules at the annual town meeting in March. The planning board had planned to deliberate Jan. 4; but only two members made it to the monthly meeting, not enough for a quorum, Town Clerk Amy Warner said.

The board meets next on Feb. 1, so the fireworks discussion will move onto that night’s agenda, Warner said Jan. 12.

Fireworks first entered Alna’s political radar in September 2013, when resident Paul Lazarus asked selectmen for an ordinance. Fireworks pose a fire hazard, particularly in a heavily wooded town like Alna, Lazarus said at the time. Two of the three board members offered to ask voters to call for an ordinance, if Lazarus asked the board to go that route.

In February 2015, after Lazarus collected 46 signatures on a petition, the board agreed to take the question to residents. A large majority of town meeting voters the next month favored having either a committee or the planning board draft fireworks rules for voters to consider in March 2016.

The planning board agreed to take up the task; members worked for months on it. But the question of how to enforce local fireworks rules emerged as a sticking point, members told a small turnout at a December 2015 public hearing. The town would need to get a written deal with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department or have a town official do the enforcing, they said.

Instead of proposing local rules, the board may propose the town keep relying on state fireworks rules, members said. Then enforcement would fall to the state or county, not the town, they said.