JAY – Selectmen voted to let Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt use up to $6,000 from a reserve account if he cannot stay within his budget to put in new sewer lines on Jewell Street.

“I’m going to try and make it on my budget,” Holt said Monday. He expects some budget line-items to go over but he’ll work to stay within the budgeted amount to cover costs of the Jewell Street project, he said.

“I’d like to see you make it in your budget, but we need to do the job and we need to buy the material,” selectmen’s Chairman Bill Harlow said.

Unanticipated pump-station repairs, vehicle breakdowns and higher costs have contributed to the tight budget, Holt said.

He also warned selectmen that the town is facing a large expense, estimated to be between $25,000 to $50,000, to do some coating at the North Jay Sewer Treatment Plant to keep the plant viable for 15 years.

The plant is about 9 years old and is starting to rust in some areas that were not coated with epoxy, which was a decision made by former selectmen when the plant was being built. There is rusting in such areas as hand railing and the cat walk.

He said it will be expensive because a portion of the treatment plant would need to be taken off-line for about a week and the wastewater would have to be pumped into a tank truck and hauled to the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“Keep us posted,” Harlow said, and asked him not to wait until the last minute and to start getting some ideas on the project.

Highway foreman John Johnson told selectmen that his crew is getting ready to start tearing into Jewell Street Monday to put in new sewer lines, water lines and storm drains.

He asked selectmen to give him direction on what roads they want to be paved in the coming year, if the budget passes in June.

Selectmen have added a separate warrant article to raise $150,000 for additional paving outside the regular paving budget proposed in the highway budget for a combined total of $305,000.

He estimated that it would cost about $55,000 for Jewell Street, $58,000 to finish Old Jay Hill Road, $150,000 to do a portion of Claybrook Road and $23,000 to do a portion of Tessier Road to smooth it out.

The list of roads in town that need paving improvement is long and the anticipated cost is high, and getting more expensive every year, town officials agreed.

Town Manager Ruth Marden said that many towns are moving toward bonding to fix roads and using the annual paving budget to pay the bond payment.

Selectmen asked Marden to look into that process.

They also recommended a committee be formed to develop a road improvement plan.