JAY — Highway Foreman John Johnson will oversee the town’s transfer station as part of his duties, Town Manager Ruth Cushman said Tuesday.

Selectmen voted unanimously Monday night to have Johnson do both jobs after an executive session, she said.

The decision is based on a budgetary shortfall, she said.

The board agreed to do it on a trial basis to see how it works and to do a review of it in May.

Johnson will not receive additional pay for the additional duties, she said.

If it doesn’t work out, she said, the 45 resumes received for the coordinator position will be reviewed and a candidate would be chosen from that pool.

The position was left vacant after the sudden death of former supervisor Bob Sanders late last year due to cancer.

In other business, selectmen voted to raise $356,000 in sewer revenue through sewer rates for the 2010-11 years. That is about $25,000 more than was raised for the current budget.

The town is in the process of looking into whether it would be feasible to change from charging users a flat fee on a per residence or business rate or to charge based on water usage.

If the process continued on a per unit rate, the increase in revenue would bring the sewer rate to a flat fee of $312 for each unit, up $22 from the current rate of $290, select board Chairman Steve McCourt said.

Selectmen also agreed to change the number of people on the Sewer Committee charged with reviewing options and making a recommendation, from 13 to 11. Previously it was eight and McCourt suggested it go to 13.

The only problem was that not enough people volunteered to serve on it. There are an equal amount of volunteer residents on public sewer and on private systems.

The committee will continue with current members Pearl Cook, Tom Goding, Warren Bryant, Paul Gilbert, Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt, Cushman and Town Clerk Ronda Palmer.

Selectmen voted to appoint new volunteers, Mike Schaedler, Rob Donald, Sue Weston and Joan VomEigen to serve on the committee.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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