JAY – Selectmen are holding a special town meeting today to ask voters to transfer $150,000 from the town’s undesignated fund to the legal services account for the purposes of defending the town in a valuation dispute.

The town meeting starts at 6 p.m. Nov. 6 at the Jay Middle School cafeteria, followed by a regular selectmen’s meeting.

Town officials are requesting the legal money to defend itself against a lawsuit filed by Androscoggin Energy LLC, which formerly owned a natural gas-fired power plant in Jay, after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2004.

The company’s lawsuit filed in bankruptcy court earlier this year claims the power plant, equipment, machines and real estate were overvalued by the town and were worth $10 million for each of 2004 and 2005.

The plant was valued by the town at $114.68 million for 2004-05 and $117.17 million in 2005-06. Jay assessed the company nearly $1.9 million in taxes in 2004-05 and $1.81 million in taxes this tax year.