NORWAY — The town safe needs to be expanded to at least three times its current size to accommodate the hundreds of records the law requires the town to save each year, selectmen were told at their Thursday night meeting.

“We get lots of birth and death certificates because of the hospital,” Town Clerk Shirley Boyce. The town gets between 200 to 250 certificates annually from Stephens Memorial Hospital, she said.

Boyce, along with town officials Debra Partridge, Rob Federico, Carol Millett and Ann Siekmann, have spent the last several months studying the storage needs of the town departments in the Municipal Building and the police, fire, library and other buildings.

The committee has recommended that the town safe be expanded to 16 by 16 feet, three times its current size.

The committee will get cost estimates and a plan together in preparation for the next budget committee, if the selectmen agree with the recommendation. The board will review the requests at a future meeting.

The committee has also recommended that the handtub building that is currently shared by the Fire Department and Firemen’s Auxiliary for storage be used by the Police Department as an evidence room and to store town trash. The Fire Department would store its materials at the Highway Department building.

The “Y” building at Lake Pennesseewassee needs repairs to the roof and inside ceiling in order to use it for storage, Boyce reported.

At the library, the committee has recommended construction of an 8- by 8-foot or 8- by 10-foot outdoor storage shed.

And at the Fire Station, where there is currently overhead storage on wooden shelves, the committee has recommended that metal shelves be used to get more space for files. The former water district building also needs roof repairs to keep storage dry there, Boyce said.

Other items to be addressed are the need for a roof over the oil filler pipes outside the fire station, the placement of signs at the Highway Department and putting an old sign that used to be at the entrance to Lake Pennesseewassee Park and is now inside the “Y” building on the outside of the “Y” building.

In other business, the board voted 4-1 to reject a request by Norway resident Angela Bonville to expand her hawking and peddler’s license to Thursday. The board granted her a license to sell handmade jewelry at the town square on Friday and Saturday, but Thursday night said they wanted to see regulations in place before expanding the licenses.

It was also reported that local excavator Scott Roberts will begin cleanup of a fire-ravaged property at 157 Pikes Hill Road next week. The board had mandated at their last meeting that the town clean up the property and put a lien on it to recoup the money paid after the owners failed to clean it adequately.

The property, which is owned by Christopher and Mary Buckley, was destroyed in a fire in March. The town has paid more than $11,000 to help with an initial cleanup after the fire.

ldixon@sunjournal.com