JAY – Buying a new boiler to heat the Jay Fire Department’s Station 1 may not be needed so soon after all.
At a meeting last month, the select board reviewed cost estimates to replace the aging 21-year-old boiler with a gas boiler with estimates coming in at $31,482 from Ranor; $31,000 from TAP; $29,730.42 from Fabian; and $31,475.46 from Maurais.
Board members then asked for an estimate on a new oil boiler to compare prices. A quote from Maurais for an oil boiler came in at $30,075.15. Fire officials began to pursue the idea of a new boiler when they found repair costs on the current oil-fired boiler approaching $2,000 annually and the concern that replacement parts were getting more difficult to find.
In the interim, Fire Chief Mike Booker, Deputy Chief Corey LeClerc, Selectperson Judy Diaz and Town Manager Shiloh LeFreniere met with a heating professional, who did not offer a quote on the project, to get an outside opinion on the furnace and the cost.
“It was suggested that the current boiler is working and that parts should still be readily accessible for it so that a replacement was not necessary at this time,” LeFreniere reported.
Recommendations were made if the boiler was not replaced. One is that a simple system be installed to alert if the temperature in the building should drop below a certain temperature. It was also advised to install a small electric hot water heater so that hot water is available year round since the boiler is shut off from April to November and that the ceiling mounted units be cleaned to improve efficiency.
At Monday’s meeting the board asked Booker to have the furnace serviced next month, instead of in February when it’s usually scheduled. As part of servicing the board asked for an assessment of what, if anything needs to be done now and what may be needed in the future, such as installing an alarm type system.
In other matters, EcoMaine, the town’s recycling company, announced it will no longer accept plastic shopping bags because they clog up the sorting machines at its facility in Portland.
Residents are advised to either recycle through one of the stores’ plastic bag recovery boxes, or to throw plastic shopping bags in the trash. A third option is to bring reusable bags when shopping.
What about paper bags? This should be a 4th option. Hey, isn’t there a paper mill in Jay?!?!
Paper bags are good except if you put out your trash and never know what time your garbage man is coming and it snows or rains on it. If you go to work you have to put out your stuff and it might rain or snow before they pick stuff up. Cans and plastic would probably be ok in paper bags but cardboard and paper would get wet and then they don’t want to recycle it
Or reuse those plastic bags! They make good trash can liners, saved you from having to buy them.
Or donate them to places like the food closets or the second hand stores.
There are many ways to recycle these bags so as not to put them in the TRASH!! The food pantry’s
would welcome them and I’m sure that the Thrift stores would also!!!
How about Jay and Livermore Falls combining their fire departments. Neither town has the money to keep spending. Its crazy for livermore falls to spend a million to put up another building. Its time to really go after things to keep our taxes DOWN. Everyone person in town government protects their own turf. We taxpayers are the ones who suffer.