JAY — Voters will consider a nearly $5.9 million proposed budget and elect town, school and water district trustees when they head to the polls from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, at the Community Building.
Voters also will elect two selectpersons and three Regional School Unit 73 directors. Customers of the North Jay and Jay Village Water districts will elect one trustee for each entity. The districts are separate from the town.
Both the Select Board and the Budget Committee voted to approve the spending plan in January for 2023-24. A new budget would go into effect July 1.
The proposal reflects an increase of $363,938 over this fiscal year budget without factoring in an estimated $2.7 million in revenues. Factoring in revenues, the budget would be about $3.16 million.
The board voted in January to take $13,000 for summer recreation and $18,802 for donations out of the Tower/Recreation Reserve Account instead of paying for it through taxation. The reserve is used to pay for recreation activities. The reserve would still have a balance of $140,979. However, money is added into the account each year and there is a plan to harvest timber on the town recreation land behind the high school. That money will go back into the reserve fund.
Most of the increase in the spending package is attributed to utility cost increases, including electricity and water, as well as payroll and benefits.
One of the overall increases throughout the budget is electricity, which is up by about $30,000, LaFreniere has said.
The town is under a contract with Maine Power Options that will expire in November. LaFreniere has factored in additional money to hopefully cover any increases when town leaders negotiate another power contract.
Both the board and the budget panel voted in January to add $9,300 to the Fire Rescue Department budget to make it $330,639. It would eliminate the on-call person and hire a per-diem person.
The department had proposed two options for the budget: Switch the on-call position to per diem or keep it the same for $321,339.
Chief Mike Booker recommended the first option while he works his full-time job at the Mexico Fire Department.
“The reason I would like to change to per diem is because there were 44 on-call shifts that were not filled out of 90 available shifts,” Booker said in January. “Calls were up this year. We responded to 433 calls, 61 of those were to Livermore Falls.”
If the Livermore Falls calls were subtracted and the first responder calls not counted, they still responded to 353 calls last year.
The per-diem shift has nothing to do with Livermore Falls, only the Jay department, he said.
Other items reflecting increases are in the Public Works Department budget, which includes more money for sand, salt and waste disposal fees.
In local elections, fourth selectperson F. Timothy DeMillo is running unopposed for reelection. Gary T. McGrane is running unchallenged for fifth selectperson.
Three candidates are vying for two three-year terms on the RSU 73 board of directors: incumbents Elaine Fitzgerald and Robert “Bob” Staples and former Director Shari Ouellette. Incumbent Christina “Tina” Riley is running unopposed for a two-year term.
Randall Doiron is running for reelection two a three-year term as trustee of the Jay Village Water District. No one is running for the three-year term on the North Jay Water District board of trustees, which means that position could be filled by write-in votes.
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