JAY — Selectmen agreed Monday that the highway crew salvage some items people want from a house on Route 133 the town owns and will have torn down.

The process has hit a little snag, Town Manager Ruth Cushman said.

Half the town has been asking to go in and remove items — a door, a plank and a mantle among other items from the house the town bought to improve an intersection at Route 133, Hyde Road and East Jay Road, she said.

The town paid $36,970.44 for the vacant house, a large barn and 3 or 4 acres of property at 346 Franklin Road on April 30. The money came from the $200,000 voters raised in the current budget to help make the intersection safer.

The Jay Historical Society wants a door, she said. Five or six people have called to ask if they could go in and salvage material.

“The problem is we hold the liability. I’ve been in there and it’s not in good shape,” Cushman said.

Someone wants a plank for sentimental reasons because that person had once lived there and wants to build a table with it, she said.

“My thought is that the highway crew go in there and get some items,” Chairman Steve McCourt said. “They are insured.”

It needs to be done so the house can be torn down and cleaned up, McCourt said.

“It’s a shame to throw it away if it means something to someone,“ Selectman Pearl Cook said.

Someone from Industry who is insured wants to go in take out items to sell to others, Cushman said.

“Once we start on that building we want it to come down and get cleaned up, “ McCourt said.

“I agree with the sentimental things to get them out but it should stop right there,” Cook said.

Cushman said an inspector found no asbestos in the house. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection is expected to send the town a letter acknowledging that.

Selectmen can ask what the timeline is for the project during DOT’s scheduled public hearing on the improvements at 6 p.m. Monday, May 20, at the Town Office.

They want to get the project done before the snow falls next year, she said.

If there is lead paint and it burns, the town would have to have the ashes hauled away, she said.

Vice Chairman Justin Merrill asked if the town’s Fire Department has been asked if they would like to train on it for going through walls and practicing other life-saving procedures. He was not talking about burning it, he said.

Public Safety Director Larry White Sr. said he will ask Assistant Chief Mike Booker about it. It would have to be set up quickly and with the building not being in great shape, White said, he didn‘t know.

The house had a fire in it in previous years.

The large barn will stay, McCourt said.

The house will come down and whatever property is needed for improvements would be used.

The rest of the field and the barn will go out to bid, McCourt said.

Both abutters are interested, Cushman said.

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