The Raymond Code Enforcement Office has a new head of the department, but he isn’t exactly a new face. Jason Williamson was hired last July as the assistant head of the town’s Code Enforcement Office, and after some on-the-job training by Chris Hanson, he was promoted to his new position by the Raymond Select Board on June 9.
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| Jay Williamson has been promoted from Assistant Code Enforcement officer to be the head Code Enforcement Officer for the Town of Raymond by the Raymond Select Board. He has worked for the town since July 2024. COURTESY PHOTO |
He says he got to a point where he didn’t think carpentry and building was a kind of work that he could do for many more years, so he decided to go into code enforcement.
“I thought maybe this would be a good transition for me,” he said.
Williamson says he enjoys his code enforcement job, which he finds both challenging and rewarding.
“The biggest challenges, I would say are when you’re dealing with some issues that crop up with neighbors,” he said. “It seems like you’re taking sides … but you’re really trying to be fair and not infringe on anybody’s rights.” Getting people to see the other side’s point of view “can be extremely difficult,” he said.
Some of the most rewarding parts of his job, Williamson says, include “I’ve gotten to meet a lot of really great people.” He said, “it’s nice when you can help someone figure out and navigate the ordinances and the codes to build a house.”
Also rewarding, Williamson said, is helping people figure out how to work with some of their land so they can sell it to a relative for them to build a house.
“It’s definitely rewarding if you can get somewhere for someone to live,” he said. “Housing is difficult to find these days and when someone can put on an addition to bring in an aging parent or for their child who can’t afford a place. I would say that’s probably the most rewarding.”
An important part of the job, Williamson says, has to do with enforcing shoreline zoning and protecting the waterways, as much of the building that takes place in Raymond is along or near lakes.
For example, in 2021 the town of Raymond was alerted to significant changes along Sebago Lake that violated shoreline zoning. The property owner reached a settlement in the past year which included payment to the town of $640,000 for legal fees and damages as well as replanting trees and shrubs and more, according to a report aired on WGME television.
Although this took place before Williamson was hired, he says that he’s responsible for making sure the remediation takes place and is on track.
“Protecting the water quality, making sure and informing homeowners when they are doing projects in and around the lakes and showing them how to do it in a manner that’s going to be respectful to the lake,” is one of his biggest responsibilities. Williamson said, “Everybody wants to do what they want with their property, but most people understand that there’s a responsibility of being down by the water. When you get people who understand is the most rewarding, I would say.”
According to Williamson, there’s no such thing as a typical day in code enforcement because “each situation can be so different.”
“Some days you might have two, three, four people come in just to make a complaint,” he said. “Other days you’ll have a lakefront property come up for sale and you’ll be fielding calls from real estate agents pretty much one right after the other because the competition is so fierce.”
Other reasons a typical day is hard to define, Williamson said, can be because the types of duties the department takes on not only includes code enforcement but also building inspections and land use. There are a lot of different responsibilities to the job and with only four people in the department, with only two of whom are code enforcers, staff are filling a lot of different shoes.
During his tenure with the town of Raymond’s Code Enforcement Office, Williamson says, “I’ve learned how difficult and multifaceted the job is. I hope I can perform in the job as well as I can.” <
