JAY — Voters will be asked Tuesday, Nov. 3, to consider whether they want a company to pick up trash and recyclables curbside or have the town service eliminated.

The vote is advisory to selectpersons.

Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Community Building at Spruce Mountain Middle School.

The last day to get an absentee ballot is Thursday, Oct. 29, unless there are special circumstances, Town Clerk Ronda Palmer said.

Voters will be asked the following in the advisory vote:

* Do they prefer that selectpersons contract for curbside trash collection to save the town approximately $130,000 per year; or

* Do they prefer that selectpersons eliminate curbside trash collection, saving the town approximately $250,000 per year.

Selectpersons told residents at a public hearing in September they couldn’t continue to support the curbside pickup service as is because of the cost and the need to plan ahead in light of the layoffs at the Verso Corp. paper mill. 

Town employees collect the materials, but if voters choose to privatize curbside collection, an outside company would be paid through taxation.

Verso Corp. announced in August that it is shutting down a paper machine, pulp dryer and permanently eliminating 300 jobs.

As the mill’s value and taxes go down, property owners’ taxes will continue to rise, Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere previously said.

Verso has challenged Jay’s valuation of the mill and property for 2013 and 2014 and the court case is at the state level.

dperry@sunmediagroup.net