LISBON – Selectmen on Tuesday night approved contributions totaling $10,000 to several area social service agencies.

They are: Abused Women’s Advocacy, $500; Advocates for Children, $700; Androscoggin Head Start & Child Care, $200; Androscoggin Home Care & Hospice, $600.

Big Brothers/Big Sisters, $250; Child Health Center, $500; Children’s Center, $600; Community Concepts, $600; Catholic Charities Maine, $750; Family Fun Day, $500.

American Red Cross, $1,100; Hospice in Midcoast Maine, $600; LACO, $800; Sexual Assault Crisis Center, $600; Tedford Program, $200.

And, Tri-County Mental Health, $750; and SeniorsPlus, $750.

Not funded were Maine PBS, SACT and YWCA.

The agencies had requested a total of $63,799, but voters at town meeting allocated just $10,000 and left the decision on how to distribute it to selectmen.

After the vote, Chairman Charles Smith said, “It’s always a hard decision.”

Town Manager Curtis Lunt reported he had been advised that a dead blue jay found in Lisbon on Aug. 29 tested positive for the West Nile Virus, the first case in Lisbon.

The welcome to Lisbon sign on Canal Street has been damaged by vandals, who broke the support posts, Lunt said. This is the second time since it was installed it has been vandalized. The first time the culprits were apprehended and paid $2,500 restitution. The incident remains under investigation.

Dorothy Fitzgerald, representing the Lisbon Community Merchants Association, voiced her objections to the nonprofit being asked to pay a $25 fee for a mass gathering permit for an upcoming event. She also objected to a requirement that the permit would be issued pending a background investigation on the organizers by the police chief.

“Since when has the police chief been doing background checks for a mass gathering permit?” she asked.

Selectmen said the fee is included in the town ordinances and only municipal organizations are exempt.

Faye Brown of the Green Thumb Gang, a group of volunteers who maintain numerous town gardens on public property, agreed with Fitzgerald. She told selectmen she felt if it’s an organization within the town, it should be considered municipal, but she was told that was not the case.

Lunt said Police Chief David Brooks may use his discretion on the background checks because the ordinance does not specify exactly how they are conducted. Background checks and the fee have been in effect since May of 1996, when the ordinance was enacted.

Fitzgerald said she had nothing to hide. “I don’t feel it’s right; it’s wrong to do it on anyone without your knowledge or consent.”

In other business, it was decided to continue seeking bids for a 1993 Volvo that has been donated to the town as a library fund-raiser. A request from the Library Governing Board to change a “no parking” area near the library to a parking area for library patrons was approved. A special entertainment permit was granted to the Lisbon Left Hand Club, as well as a resident’s request for a “slow, children playing” sign to be installed on Park Road below Beaver Park entrance.