Alna selectmen will help issue fireworks permits, after Fire Chief Mike Trask and fellow permit-seeker Jeff Whittemore said March 29 they hadn’t gotten theirs.

The two men questioned the board on several aspects of the ordinance town meeting voters passed March 18 on consumer fireworks use. If someone doesn’t like the new rules, they can try to get them repealed, Third Selectman Doug Baston said. Whittemore asked how. It would take a petition and a town vote, the same steps the ordinance took, selectmen said.

Trask told the board he wanted to use fireworks the night of March 24 and had sought a permit. First Selectman David Abbott said he told Deputy Town Clerk Judy Greenleaf she could issue it. Town Clerk Lisa Arsenault was off that week. Selectmen agreed they need a way for people to get permits when the office is closed. They might add an online service, but in the meantime anyone unable to get one from the town office can call any selectman.

Abbott and Baston noted the ordinance wasn’t the board’s idea; when resident Paul Lazarus approached the board years ago, he was directed to file a petition if he wanted to pursue rules, Abbott said. But they said now that the rules are in place, the board needs to follow them.

“(The ordinance) was overwhelmingly passed and I’m not going to play games with it,”  Baston said after Trask asked if he could get a permit good through December. Trask said he wasn’t playing games. “I think you are, on that,” Baston said. The permits are good for just the requested date, selectmen said. Whittemore told Second Selectman Melissa Spinney his application stated he plans to use fireworks daily, but that she could cross out that part.

Trask said he shot off fireworks a couple of times last year and still wants to be able to do it when the mood strikes him. He didn’t do it the night he wanted to because he didn’t have a permit. “I did not break the law,” he told selectmen.

Also March 29, the board decided to check with assessing firms and recheck with Alna’s assessing agent John O’Donnell on how much each would charge for a town-wide revaluation and when they could do it. Abbott said O’Donnell recently told him he couldn’t get to it until 2018. Baston said Maine Revenue Services told him using the town’s firm can help, because it already knows the properties, and other firms would have a learning curve.

Selectmen said they may ask other towns who they used for revaluations. “Every year that goes by ... some (property owners) are getting off light and some people are getting whacked,” Baston said.

The board will look into two ideas on property taxes: collecting them twice a year instead of once; and discounts for paying early. Members hope to find out what’s involved and any reasons not to try them. The ideas came up when members discussed plans for this year’s tax anticipation note. No rate or amount was set.

Semi-annual tax collections could help with cash flow and possibly avoid a note, selectmen said.  The interest saved on notes could help offset losses on the discounts, Baston said. He said if tax collection goes semi-annual, the first time might require property owners to pay six months ahead; but that’s one of the things the board will need to check on, he said.

Selectmen reappointed Arsenault as clerk and Amy Stockford as treasurer. The board meets next at 6 p.m. April 12 at the town office.