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The Town of New Market will keep its 28-year exemption from state ethics regulations.

In an e-mail forwarded to The Gazette by Mayor Winslow Burhans III on Tuesday, Town Clerk Deb Butler informed town officials that the State Ethics Commission has decided to continue the exemption and advised the town to consider creating ethics regulations of its own.

Butler wrote that the commission may again review the town's exemption status as a part of the 2010 census, as the commission will be reviewing all municipalities at that time.

The review was triggered by a citizen's group, Citizens for Public Ethics in New Market, the members of which thought the town's business and population had grown enough since 1981, when the exemption was granted, for to the state to lift the exemption.

State ethics laws require municipalities to create guidelines for lobbying, conflicts of interest, and financial disclosure for public officials.

However, certain municipalities are exempt if the scope of their business is limited, and if guidelines would constitute an unreasonable intrusion into public official's private lives.

Clayton Magee, spokesman for the Citizens for Public Ethics in New Market, said the group would have to consider what its next move would be before he could make a comment on the exemption.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.