JAY — Selectmen voted Monday to use up to $2,500 from the Cemetery Reserve Account to clean gravestones at two town-owned cemeteries.

Town Manager Ruth Cushman said some of the stones are in bad shape and cannot be read.

The estimate to do all the stones that need it in the Birchland Cemetery, off Route 17 in North Jay, is $1,500, town grounds keeper Larry Wright said.

He has received complaints about the condition of some stones. People come through town and are seeking graves of ancestors and it is difficult to read some stones.

Weather cracks will also be repaired, he said.

Cushman recommended stones in the Bartlett Cemetery, off of Route 133 next to Wiles Funeral Home, also be cleaned.

There is more than $50,000 in the reserve account, she said.

Stones in the North Jay Cemetery were previously cleaned and look nice, Wright said.

If town employees did the cleaning and something went wrong such as a stone being broken, he said, the town would be liable.

In other business, Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt gave an update to selectmen regarding maintenance and operation at the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Jay pays for the wastewater flow that comes from Jay properties that are handled by the Livermore Falls plant. Livermore Falls owns the plant but the two towns share the cost of maintenance and operation based on wastewater treated at the plant.

Livermore Falls is in the process of doing some repairs and maintenance on the plant, Holt said.

The plant is more than halfway through its lifespan, he said.

The Sewer Department Superintendent Greg Given has a list of things that need to be done that Holt estimated would cost more than a $1 million.

Livermore Falls is in the process of looking at the need to replace a deteriorated in-line channel grinder and install a bar screen at the plant that is estimated to cost more than $200,000 including a building to cover it.

Holt said he was giving selectmen an update on the plant repairs because his budget line that covers the town’s share of the repairs may not be adequate. When he made his budget about 18 months ago, he said, he did not know that such repairs would be needed.

“Right now my budget looks OK,” Holt said but he may be coming to see them within a couple of months.

There is a reserve account that the two towns contribute to for plant operation and maintenance.

It was about $100,000 but about $8,700 was needed to do another repair, he said.

One item that needs work, he said, is a computer system that is supposed to run the whole plant.

The computer is 1998 vintage and needs to be updated, he said.

“They are not going and spending money that does not need to be spent,” Holt said. “They are legitimate expenses.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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