UNITY — Voters at Saturday’s town meeting made sure obscenity doesn’t get a foot in the door by approving adult business and public indecency ordinances.

Town Clerk Sue Lombard reported Monday that there was little debate on either ordinance prior to the vote. Though hardly unanimous, the adult business ordinance passed by a written ballot vote of 43 to 25. The public indecency ordinance was adopted by a show of hands, Lombard said.

The adult business ordinance was designed to prevent the use of commercial property for purposes of adult entertainment. Should an individual somehow manage to open an adult-oriented business, the indecency ordinance would prohibit the exposure of unclothed human bodies as well as indecent acts.

“This would keep out peep shows, booths, explicit materials and things like that,” Lombard said. “It’s like an insurance policy, to make sure those type of things don’t happen. We don’t have any problems like that right now and we don’t want any.”

The ordinance states in part that its intent is to “protect our community against undesirable business establishments … There is no intent to confiscate video tapes, books or magazines that are at use in private homes.”

Voters also returned second selectman Charles Murch to another three-year term. Murch defeated Alice Cheeseman by a vote of 128 to 87. Clair Lewis Jr. was re-elected assessor and Donald Newell was elected to complete the remaining two years of an unexpired term on the SAD 3 Board of Directors. Newell will replace John Carmen, who was appointed interim director when Richard Perkins resigned upon moving from the area. Perkins was elected in 1996.

Voters also approved an annual budget that was approximately $42,000 higher than last year, Lombard said.

Residents authorized the board of selectmen to provide health insurance for Lombard, who is a 32-hour-per-week town employee. Lombard said the board was “still shopping around for the best coverage for the money.”

She said the meeting took about five hours and that the obscenity ordinances were the major issue. “Basically, they were the big ones,” she said.