Stonington — A town meeting will be held Thursday night for residents to vote on a proposed ban on single-use plastic bags and straws and a tax exemption for farming equipment and buildings.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Stonington High School auditorium. The text of the ordinances is available at bit.ly/SNnotices.

The plastics ban is the result of work by the Plastic Bags and Straws Ad Hoc Committee, which was formed by selectmen last summer to come up with a plan to reduce plastic waste. The selectmen formed the committee after a group of residents urged the town to consider banning single-use plastic bags such as bags used by supermarkets, as well as plastic straws, to address the increasing problem of discarded plastic in marine waters.

The ordinance requires that anyone engaged in retail sales use reusable or recyclable paper bags for customers and no businesses can provide or sell single-use plastic carryout bags. However, there are exemptions for double opening and plastic barrier bags used for wrapping fish, meat and flowers, laundry and newspapers. Additionally, a full-service restaurant would not be able to provide plastic straws unless customers request them.

If the ordinance is approved, there will be a six-month window for public education and for businesses to dispose of their existing inventory of plastic bags and straws and make the conversion.

After that, anyone that violates the ban will be notified by the town and given 14 days to comply. Each subsequent violation is punishable by a $150 fine. Fine money will be used "for further initiatives to create a culture of plastic waste reduction." The town also will not renew licenses for businesses found to be in violation of the ordinance.

The farm exemption would exempt up to $100,000 each of farm equipment and non-residential farm buildings from taxes.

Ward Smith, the chairman of the Stonington Agriculture Committee, has said the proposed ordinance is taken from a state law that allows municipal governments to exempt farm equipment from property taxes on assessments of up to $100,000 and individual nonresidential farm buildings to the extent of their assessed value to a maximum of $100,000.

This means that if a farm building is worth $200,000, the owner would pay taxes on only $100,000 after applying for and receiving the $100,000 exemption. The same would hold true for equipment.

Tax Assessor Marsha Standish has said farmers already can apply for exemptions on equipment assessed at up to $100,000. The proposed ordinance would add another $100,000 exemption on equipment for a total of $200,000 on equipment.

Residents also will vote on a proposal to rename the revitalized Permanent Committee to Study the Needs and Use of Town Public Buildings to the Stonington Public Buildings Committee, a reduction of eight words.

When residents debated what to originally name the committee at a town meeting about 20 years ago, Town Attorney Tom Londregan said that in his long career representing municipalities, he had never seen a committee with such a lengthy name.

j.wojtas@theday.com