JAY — Selectmen took no action Monday night on the traffic flow but indicated they would return Otis Street to a dead-end and put back a “do not enter” sign at the end of Otis Street where Pine Street intersects in mid-October.

The board decided to wait until after highway foreman John Johnson crafts the correct wording for the motion prior to selectmen voting on it. Once they do, it would then be included in the town’s traffic ordinance.

The board held a public hearing on the traffic flow after residents of Pine and Maple streets complained about the removal of the dead-end sign on Otis Street and the installation of two-way traffic signs on Pine Street last month.

However, at least 13 residents of Otis Street signed a petition to have the traffic on Otis Street continue to be allowed to enter Pine Street from the end of that street.

Town Manager Ruth Cushman had checked town records and there was never a vote to have Pine Street be one way.

A few property owners on Pine Street said they didn’t want Pine Street to be one way. They just wanted traffic from Otis not to be allowed onto Pine Street from that end.

Residents in favor of keeping Pine Street inaccessible from Otis Street cited safety, speeding traffic and narrowness of the road as reasons to return the road to the way it was.

Otis Street residents want to be able to access Pine Street directly instead of trying to get onto Route 4 through the ongoing road construction.

The board will take up the traffic flow at its next meeting on Monday, Sept. 26.

In other business, the board agreed to have the water usage information checked for Smiley Laundry at 10 Main St. to make sure the proper numbers were used. If not, Smiley’s bill will be adjusted.

Owner Dan Smiley had been previously told that the new sewer use rate is based on the winter quarter of water use multiplied by four. He said he was overcharged.

Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt said that for large water users, such as laundries, the town uses all four quarters of water usage to base the sewer rate on. The Sewer Department and Smiley used different quarters of water use to establish the rate.

The board voted to deny Smiley’s request for a 2 ½-percent abatement on his sewer bill. Smiley had said that some of the water used in the washing process is evaporated in the dryer and does not going into the town sewer. He gave the board some other towns’ ordinances that do allow for the abatement prior to them making a decision.

Selectmen also denied a request from Dianna Poulin on Look Brook Road to pay about half the cost of a bill from a business that fixed a drainage issue in her yard.

The total bill was for $980.53

Cushman said that neither the board nor the town approved the work. Cushman said Poulin had previously been told that the issue was not a town problem and instead it was that her yard didn’t have enough fill in it.

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