LIVERMORE FALLS — Selectmen voted Monday to adopt a joint resolution with Jay to work together on a grant-writing program to develop Chisholm Trails, interim Town Manager Kristal Flagg said Tuesday.

Jay selectmen also adopted the resolution to help Chisholm Trails Group  try and establish trails to connect the two towns and possibly bring in more visitors as part of economic development.

Flagg said she also informed selectmen that the state will take 545 square feet of the front lawn of Treat Memorial Library, closest to the Post Office. It is part of the Route 4 road improvement project expected to begin next year. The state will pay $3,000 for the land to the library trust fund, Flagg said.

The board also named people to an 11-member town manager search committee. The five selectmen, four department heads and residents Denise Rodzen and Darryl Brown will serve on the committee. Thirty-two applications have been received for the position, and screening of those applications is set for Tuesday, Dec. 28.

Members of a committee studying police services will meet with Androscoggin County commissioners at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 29, at the commissioners’ office in Auburn, Flagg said.

Selectman Alphonso Barker, chairman of the committee, Scott Roberts, chairman of the Budget Committee, and Selectman Jim Collins will go to the meeting, she said.

Commissioner Randall Greenwood had asked that only town officials come to the meeting to discuss how much it would cost for the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department to provide the same service that is being provided locally, Flagg said.

However, Barker insisted on Roberts coming to the meeting, Flagg said. She told Barker that it was only supposed to be town officials and it was unfair that Roberts was invited but not the other members of the committee, Peter Cloutier and police Chief Ernest Steward, she said.

The Budget Committee voted in November that town selectmen enter into a contract with the Sheriff’s Department without seeing official contract figures of the cost.

Committee members based their decision on figures and a report presented by former Town Manager Jim Chaousis before he left to take another job. Steward did his own comparison based on a contract the county has with Poland, and it showed the local department could provide the service for less, according to information Steward presented previously to selectmen.

The whole Police Services Committee is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30, at the town office.

dperry@sunjournal.com