JAY – Selectmen have agreed not to charge the School Department for sewer use in 2009-10.

The charge had been included in the proposed budget, if voters had approved consolidating with Livermore and Livermore Falls to create a regional school system. Voters in all three towns rejected that plan in January.

Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt had been asked to figure out what the school and town departments each would pay if charged for sewer use.

The sewer rate is based on a flat fee charged to users with the remainder of costs paid through property taxes.

None of the municipal departments had budgeted to pay for sewer use in the next year, Town Manager Ruth Marden said.

Holt gave a rundown of his findings to the board Monday. The School Department would have been charged for 46 units at $290 a unit, which comes out to $13,485. The bus garage would have been charged $870, fire stations $145 each, former town office $290, new town office $435, Head Start building $290 and sewer treatment plant $145. The total of all town and school-related charges was $15,805, Holt said.

The library is already charged, he said.

Selectmen are considering going to a sewer rate that encompasses a base fee and per cubic foot use rate to help make it fairer to taxpayers who do not have public sewer service. The town entities would also be charged, if selectmen decide to make that decision.

Holt also presented findings on a pilot study he did of what sewer rates would be based on the fourth-quarter of 2008 water meter readings of residences on the North Jay Water District. Holt used the sewer rate selectmen set for 2009-10 at $290 per unit, with the remainder of the budget to be covered by taxation.

He prepared six scenarios for selectmen to review and how they would affect sewer user fees of those residences for the share of sewer costs needed to be covered in that area.

Selectmen decided to review the information and to decide how such a system could be implemented for the 2010-11 fiscal year in July.

If it goes forward, Holt said, they would need to buy computer software and hold training on its use for town office staff. He also said that people who are high users would see their sewer bills increase.

Selectman Amy Gould said she believed what they are looking at is to charge those on town sewer for what they use.

“It just seems right that people who overuse pay a higher rate,” Gould said.

In related matters, selectmen held a public hearing on borrowing funds to replace aging sewer lines on Route 4, which is Main Street, from the Livermore Falls town line to Pineau Street in Jay. The project is to be done in conjunction with the Maine Department of Transportation reconstruction of a section of the road that begins at Bridge Street in Livermore Falls.

In order to borrow low interest funds for the project through a state or federal entity, a hearing must be held to let people know the town is going through the process, Marden said.

It is estimated the project would cost $685,000 including fees for borrowing money.

Seven banks in Maine have also been solicited for bids on interest rates so the town can get the best rate.