JAY — The majority of residents at a special town meeting Monday vote to authorize selectpersons to borrow up to $3.9 million to install a system to send  sewage from North Jay to Livermore Falls for treatment.

The plan is to eliminate use of the North Jay Wastewater Treatment Plant. 

Instead a pump station, a force main system would be installed and run across fields and along Route 4, go under Route 4 to a multipurpose trail and run beside it to the Jay Plaza to a collection system. The sewage would then go to the Livermore Falls Treatment Plant.

Resident Daniel Poulin said he has his own sewer system and asked if he was going to have to pay for the new system?

Sewer Department Superintendent Mark Holt said some of it would be paid for through general taxation and some by sewer users.

“Why should I pay for it?  Nobody takes care of my sewer system,” Poulin said.

Sewer users in Jay pay for the majority of operation and maintenance of the public sewer system while general taxation helps pay for debt service.

Jay also shares the cost of operation and maintenance of the Livermore Falls plant because some Jay residences are served by that plant.

In the short-term it would cost about $1.6 million to upgrade the North Jay plant, which would have to be rebuilt every 20 to 25 years, Holt said, and the cost for the rebuilds would continue to rise.

In the long run the new system would be more cost efficient. A force main is good for 75 years, he said. The town would be eligible for more grants and low-interest loans because the new process would eliminate potential discharges into a small stream, Holt said.

There would be an overall yearly savings of $107,000 to abandon the North Jay plant to offset the annual payment. The amount factors in an estimated increase of $11,000 a year to have the sewage treated at the Livermore Falls Wastewater Plant, he said. 

At an estimated maximum interest rate of 1.5 percent and an estimated maximum term of 20 years, the interest on the bonds would be $638,629.38, for a total debt of $4.53 million. The estimated annual payment is $225,900.

 dperry@sunmediagroup.net

Daniel Poulin of Jay, second from right in back, speaks Monday during a special town meeting. Voters approved authorizing selectpersons to enter into an agreement to borrow up to $3.9 million to install a system to send sewage from North Jay residences to Livermore Falls for treatment. (Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal)