JAY – On Monday night the selectboard approved the bidding for harvesting wood from the Gravel Pit Lot.
The lot was scheduled to be bid on last spring, but with COVID-19 the selectboard decided to wait until this year to bring up the bidding again. Stephen Gettle, of Woodland Investment Services thought that there is no reason to delay this time around.
Gettle estimates that over 4000 cords across 155 acres will be removed worth an estimated $95,000.
Gettle will be showing the land to prospective bidders on April 26, with bids due at the town office by 2 pm on May 5.
The board also approved sharing a Sewer Superintendent with the town Livermore Falls which was approved by Livermore Falls last week.
The board unanimously voted to install new pumps at the Sewer Pump station.
Jay Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt proposed to take $95,000 out of the Sewer Departments reserve account to pay for the new pumps as well as their installation, though he doesn’t believe that it will cost the full amount.
The station has been using pumps that were installed in 1998 and Holt thinks it’s time that they need to be replaced by the more efficient models that have since come out. The current models are easily jammed whenever non flushable materials end up in the pipeline which holds up the processing of waste and requires someone to come down and unjam them. The newer models will be better equipped to process non flushable materials.
This proposal is part of a long term improvement plan for the Sewer Department.
The board heard a presentation from two University of Maine at Orono engineering students who have been working on designing and planning a Sludge Compost Facility at the decommissioned North jay Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Jason Barnes and Anthony Pinnette showed the board via slideshow the design of the facility as well as the benefits. The facility would take dewatered sludge produced at the Livermore Falls Waste Water Treatment Facility and turn it into compost which over the course of 30 years will save the town an estimated $2.3 million over what it would cost to continue operating the way the town currently is.
The board voted unanimously to countersign the Warrant for the RSU 73 Budget Referendum, which will be held at Spruce Mountain Middle School on tuesday, April 27.
The board also signed a letter to the Committee of Appropriations expressing their support for the application that was jointly filed by Congressman Jared Golden for the towns of Jay and Livermore Falls for the needed upgrades at the Livermore Falls Waste Water Treatment Facility. The letter seeks further assistance in securing federal funding for the needed upgrade.
Benjamin Lower was approved unanimously by the board to be appointed to the Jay Planning board.
