JAY — The Jay Board of Selectmen has accepted a $2,000 bid from the town of Vienna for a 1986 forestry fire vehicle.
“It’s probably a good price for the truck,” said Fire Chief Scott Shink at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting. “It’s dented. It has some bondo work on it. One gas tank had rusted out last year. It’s beat up.”
According to Shink, the truck has a 250-gallon skid pump. It also has 300 feet of hose, a radio and a siren. Bids were sent out to the general public, and the Vienna bid was the lone one received.
Several selectmen asked if the bid was reasonable, and Shink responded that it was given the truck’s condition. Money from the sale will go into the Fire Department’s capital equipment account.
In other business, Town Manager Ruth Marden said she had received correspondence from Jay High School envirothon adviser Rob Taylor regarding the school’s envirothon team fundraising for their trip to Charlotte, N.C., to participate in the international competition in August. The team won the state competition this spring to earn the right to participate, and was looking for $300 in town donations combined with the $194 the selectmen had approved for the trip last month.
Taylor explained in the letter that the additional town donation “would just about cover” the $534.39 cost of renting a van for the week. He added that students have been able to do some fundraising and have also benefited from a $2,400 donation from the school department.
Marden pointed out that town policy states that those seeking town donations have to be on the town meeting warrant.
“I just want you to keep in mind we can’t have it both ways,” she said.
Chairman Steven McCourt asked if the students had sought donations from Verso’s Androscoggin Mill on the morning shift.
“Everyone who goes through the gate gives something,” he said of the mill’s generosity to past fundraising endeavors.
The selectmen voted to table the matter until receiving more information on the fundraising efforts.
Water District Superintendent Richard Jackson, who was not present, informed Marden that the water district has secured financing for the Belmont and Summit streets water line replacement and will start work in mid-fall, with completion in September or October. He stated his intention to use reclaimed material for the road surface and trenches and let it sit one year.
“According to him, we will end up with a much better road if the trenches settle for a year,” Marden explained.
McCourt said that if the project was going to be that late in the year getting started, then paving money should be taken from it and applied to roads in greater need of repair, while the cost of asphalt remains affordable.
“We have some roads that could use some surface on them to save them,” McCourt said.
Selectman Tom Goding noted that Belmont and Summit streets would hold up better by using reclaimed material and have it be compacted over one year then paving over it “and end up having a trench down the middle of the road where the water runs all the time.”
“Obviously, that road’s all dug up,” said Selectman Steve Barker of Belmont and Summit streets. “That road’s going to be like that for a year, which is dirt.”
“If you put hot top over the top of it (the water line) in the fall, the following year it’s going to have those trenches and you’re going to have to do the job all over again,” Goding said. “You’re a lot better off letting it sit for a year and compact.”
Stakes have been placed behind the former Ames building indicating a spot for a proposed dog park, Marden said. The park’s proponents had been present at the June 22 meeting explaining their plans to have a space where residents and visitors alike could play with and exercise their dogs.
“We’re not giving land away,” McCourt said, addressing a misconception some in town had of the arrangement. “We’re going to lease it to them.”