JAY – Selectmen voted to buy the former Jay Family Restaurant to make it a town office/police station Monday, upholding a decision by residents in January.

Residents voted 92-72 on Jan. 29 to buy the building for $270,000 and to spend the remainder of the $729,000 reserve account, after deducting the purchase price and other expenses to renovate it. There is now $726,824 in the account. For the month of January, it earned $2,791 in interest.

Six members of the Building Committee voted last week to recommend selectmen withdraw from buying the building because it didn’t meet all the needs of the municipality.

But a couple of those people changed their minds and asked selectmen to stick with the voters’ decision.

Janet Diaz, owner of the former restaurant on Route 4, sent a letter to townspeople stating she was upfront from the beginning about the building and even spent $20,000 to rehab it including removing Sheetrock from walls and ceiling.

She said she thought she was offering the town a good deal because they paid taxes on nearly $387,000 of value on the land and building.

She asked for the $20,000 back, if the town was not going to buy the building. More than 20 residents attended Monday’s meeting with many of them telling selectmen to stick with the voters’ decision.

Mary Howes, a Building Committee member, said she voted against buying the building because she thought the town was not going to have enough money.

With an estimated $35,000 for architect fees, an estimated $505,000 to renovate it and $270,000 to buy it, the total comes to $810,000, Howes said.

Howes, selectmen and others in the audience said they thought Diaz was selling the building to the town for a good price.

Howes’ husband, Tim DeMillo, another Building Committee member who voted against buying the building after touring it last week, said information came to light that there also might be other options that the town could pursue that he hadn’t heard about before.

The couple said they thought they had not done justice to the townspeople without presenting all the facts before the vote.

Rumors that a new building could be built for $100-a-square-foot also surfaced, but contractors and others in attendance said a commercial building would cost significantly more.

Building Committee members Sylvia Ridley and Kermit Greenleaf said they felt somewhat blindsided last week and voted against buying the building but had since changed their minds after reconsidering all the facts.

“No. 1, taxpayers voted to buy that building,” Ridley said.

She said if the voters say yes, then no one has the right to overturn that vote unless there is another town meeting.

“People voted. I think we have to go with that,” Ridley said. “People die in this country for the right to vote.”

Rumors also floated that mixed figures together, selectmen’s Chairman Bill Harlow said.

Also, though the piece of land is more than an acre, there is some land that didn’t come with the property.

The renovation estimate does include a new roof, windows, demolition and a contingency fund, among other work.

Selectmen Steve McCourt and Rick Simoneau said the town wouldn’t see another opportunity like this one.

“My personal view is we can make it work. It’s going to take some effort. It’s going to take some sacrifices,” Simoneau said, but it will work.

McCourt said he stated before residents voted that the town is missing out on a great piece of property if they don’t buy it, and he’s sticking to that.