JAY – Selectmen tabled a discussion Monday on architectural services for the new town office after a Building Committee member said that they should have a say in it.

Residents voted 92-72 in January to buy the former Jay Family Restaurant for $270,000 and to renovate the building for a new town office/police station. The town has about $729,000 in a reserve account to purchase and renovate it.

Craig Boone of Jay, a member of the Jay Building Committee and an architect with Bunker and Savage in Augusta, displayed a rough design of a floor plan for selectmen and members of the audience.

This plan is an ongoing development.

Boone said he had met several times with police Chief Larry White Sr. and had been in contact with Town Manager Ruth Marden on the floor plan.

There will be more meetings, he said, with selectmen, White, Marden and the Building Committee during the design phase.

Once that phase is done and drawings are squared away, Bunker said, he estimated it would be near June before the project goes out to bid.

Marden asked selectmen what they were going to do about architectural services: stay with Bunker and Savage or put it out to bid, she asked.

Selectmen’s Chairman Bill Harlow said it was his feeling that they should stay with Bunker and Savage because they have been with them since the onset of doing a study on the former town office as well as giving designs and estimates for a new town office.

The Building Committee has been working on getting a new town office for several years and voters had previously rejected proposals before January.

Richard Jackson, a member of the Building Committee, said the committee felt they were going to have a say in the architectural services and design of the project.

They didn’t have a say, Jackson said, and if members didn’t show up, the architectural services would have been decided without them.

“Craig does a good job, I agree,” Jackson said.

“I apologize,” Harlow said. “It was an oversight on my part and others involved.”

Jackson said he thought the committee should have had a meeting before this.

Harlow offered to table the discussion until after the committee had a meeting and could make a recommendation.

It is the selectmen’s decision and responsibility to hire an architect and to sign a contract, Marden said.

The Building Committee agreed to meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at the Jay Niles Memorial Library in North Jay, and if that isn’t available, to meet at the Community Center.

Marden said she would be at the former restaurant to show Building Committee members around at 10 a.m. that day.

Construction contractor and resident Tom Goding said they will be better off taking their time on a project like this so they know exactly what they are going to do.

Selectmen also agreed to have someone check out the sewer system to make sure it is good to go.

“We have no problem with Craig. We appreciate all he’s done – his volunteer work and the other work he has done,” committee Chairwoman Pearl Cook said.