LIVERMORE — Officials are participating in county trainings, Selectpersons were told at their meeting Tuesday, May 10. The trainings will allow Androscoggin County to apply for certain grants in the future.

Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller said he had attended a Zoom training with Fire Chief Donald Castonguay and Androscoggin County Emergency Management Agency.

“Basically, it dealt with responding to natural hazards,” he said. “That includes floods, summer weather, hurricanes, drought, wildfires, intense weather, and our ability to react to solar flares, that kind of thing.

“We looked at where our strong points are,” Miller continued. “We are confident in our operations, communications. I think we face challenges in areas such as mass-care services, mass search and rescue operations and economic recovery.”

A weatherman, two geologists spoke during the training, Miller said. Earthquakes, landslides and that kind of thing were discussed. Although the risk is low for this area they looked at how to react to any major, natural events, he added.

The county wants to assess towns to be able to put in for certain grants later, Miller said. “My understanding is that they need to have this work done by the spring of 2024,” he noted. “Next week, it’s going to be hazmat and adversarial situations like active shooter situations, things like that.

“It was pretty good experience,” Miller added.

In other business Selectpersons discussed adding tiny home requirements to town ordinances.

LD 1981 was passed in 2020 regulating tiny homes, Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller said. There has been some clarification from the Office of State Fire Marshal, he noted.

“The statute allows for a smaller footprint than what our ordinances say,” Miller said. “We can’t be more restrictive than what state law says.”

Local ordinances would conflict with the state’s, he noted.

“I will be doing some more research on this,” Miller added.

If there were a fire in a tiny home getting in or out could be a safety concern for the town, Selectperson Brett Deyling said.

Holding off on amending the ordinances until the town’s attorney is on retainer later this year was suggested by Miller.

Ordinance changes could be coupled with the gubernatorial election in November, he said.