JAY — Selectmen agreed Monday to set up another meeting and seek legal counsel before making any decisions on moving the traffic exit at the municipal building and sewer lines that cross an abutting property.

Last month, Toby and Jennifer Kachnovich requested an easement over the paved driveway of the municipal building that would allow access to their property, adjacent to the municipal building. They plan to construct an office building to house his surveying business and maybe one other small business.

In return, they offered the town an easement over their property where the town’s sewer line runs. The town does not have a legal easement to cross the property, Town Manager Ruth Cushman had told the board.

Kachnovich was seeking to avoid adding an exit and entrance for the business on Route 4. Part of the town’s exit drive from the municipal building is owned by the couple, he said previously.

He suggested a shared entrance and exit with an easement over the paved driveway of the municipal building allowing access to his property. A driveway to his business would intersect at the curve of the town’s driveway in an area between the police station and the exit on to Route 4, he said.

A shared access would be better and safer for the town and would be more in line with what the Maine Department of Transportation would rather see, he said last month.

Since then the couple has met with their attorney and Bill Austin from state Department of Transportation in Dixfield and came back to the board Monday with an alternate plan that provided his own entrance and exit, he said.

The couple had also backed off on their offer to give the town an easement to cover the sewer line running across their property. They wanted to hold that discussion for another day.

Although they wanted to make it easier for everyone and felt their previous offer to trade easements was a fair deal, they told the board, they also wanted “to get going with the project.”

“We’re not saying we won’t give the easement but that we want to keep our options open,” said Jennifer Kachnovich after her husband said they were thinking about the possibility of adding more buildings on the site.

Selectmen discussed options for moving sewer lines from the property including moving a shed and propane tanks or installing lines on the north side of the lot but it would mean digging up tar, Mark Holt, superintendent of the Sewer Department said.

Another option may be eminent domain as the sewer line has been there since the 1980s, Holt added.

“We don’t want to make any rash decisions,” Selectman Steve McCourt said, suggesting that the board get a legal opinion to try to avoid a legal mistake and protect the citizens’ property.

Board members also said the plans had changed since they met with Austin and wanted a meeting with “all parties involved where all can agree on one thing,” McCourt said.

While Selectman Tim DeMillo told the couple he could understand their frustration, previously the town didn’t have any information or answers, he said.

“We met with Bill and this is a long ways from what he told us. We’re not doubting you but it would behoove us to get our own (information),” DeMillo said.

The board agreed to take an extra step and set up a meeting with everyone involved.

abryant@sunjournal.com