JAY — Selectmen voted Monday to give two property owners six months to remove, move or buy land from the town due to two sheds being on town land.

They also set a special town meeting for 6 p.m., Monday, Dec. 20, at the town office to see if voters will sell two small strips of land to two property owners on Oak Street who have a fence and shed on town land.

The last property, owned by John Taglienti, which has a small Central Maine Power Co. pole on it, is OK because the company owns the pole and the town owns the land, select board Chairman Steve McCourt said.

The board learned on Nov. 22 that several property owners on Oak Street and one on Stone Street that abut the town-owned Stone Street Baseball Field had structures built or installed over the town property line.

Those structures, according to officials, are 2 to 16 feet over the town’s property line.

Richard “Babe” and Mary Binette had a buyer for their house but a mortgage survey showed that a shed was about 3 feet on town property. The couple cannot sell the property unless the title is clear, they said.

Russell and Sarah Bernard, who have a buyer for their property on Stone Street, asked that the town give the new owner time to get the shed squared away. The buyer wants the shed, Russell Bernard said. If it was up to him, he said, he would tear it down.

This property changed hands three times, and it has never been an issue, Bernard said.

If it was anybody but the town’s land, it would be his land by squatter’s rights, he said. The shed has been there more than 40 years, he said.

He thought the shed was partially on a neighboring property when he bought the property, he said. No one mentioned anything to them about it, he said.

“We just want the issue to go away,” Bernard said.

It has become an emotional issue for his family since they were supposed to move out last Saturday, he said.

“We’ve been paying taxes on a shed for 7  1/2 years,” his wife said. She asked if they should get an abatement on their taxes.

Town Manager Ruth Cushman said no because they had use of the shed and were using it.

The survey on the town-owned property was done in 2001, surveyor Toby Kachnovich said.

Byron Ramsdell, an owner of property on Oak Street, will tear down the shed on his property.

The Binette’s and Suzanne Czarbecki want to buy about 10 feet of the town’s property to straighten out their property, they said. Czarbecki said it would be cheaper for her to buy the property than to move the pool fence. She bought the property three years ago, and the fence was already there, she said.

Cushman said that the cost to the Binette’s to buy 9 feet of town property for $750 plus half the cost of a special town meeting. That’s in addition to surveying costs and related documentation, which Kachnovich said would be about $800 for each property owner.

Babe Binette asked that it be rounded to 10 feet. The cost at that much was not figured.

The town meeting is estimated to cost $125, and the two property owners would split it.

The cost to Czarbecki would be $1,000 to buy the town property, plus half the town meeting cost, Cushman said, in addition to surveying costs.

Now it is up to voters to determine if they want to sell town property.

dperry@sunjournal.com