Alna residents could be weeks away from their first look at fireworks rules they will weigh at the 2016 town meeting.

“We’re getting close,” Planning Board Chairman Sean Day said Oct. 19 about the board’s progress on drafting an ordinance. Voters in March 2015 agreed to have either the planning board or a selectmen-appointed committee draft one in time for the next town meeting in March 2016. The planning board later agreed to do it.

Former Alna selectman Paul Lazarus petitioned for the 2015 vote a year and a half after first asking selectmen to draft an ordinance. Following the earlier request, selectmen said they would first want to know if residents wanted local fireworks rules. 

The petition Lazarus turned in in February 2015 had 46 valid signatures on it that he had gathered from residents. In a phone interview Oct. 19, he said he was glad to hear that the planning board is close to having a draft ready.

He would prefer that Maine return to its ban on consumer fireworks sales, he said. However, as in prior interviews, Lazarus noted that he was not proposing what the town should have for rules on using consumer fireworks, only that he wanted the town to consider restrictions.

For the most part, the planning board is looking at proposing that the town’s rules mirror state rules, Day said. There are a couple of areas the board will likely propose be stricter at the local level, he said. He did not have details on those items at the time of the interview.

The planning board expects to compile the draft at its next regular meeting on Nov. 2, Day said. That would give residents a month to review it before the board’s December meeting, when the panel will ask for public input, he said.

When the planning board completes the proposal, the board of selectmen will review it and get it on the town meeting warrant, First Selectman David Abbott said Tuesday.