JAY – The Selectboard and budget committee issued their final recommendations for the 2015 annual town meeting Wednesday evening, holding donations to flat funding as part of a $5.64 million budget. The Selectboard also recommended that residents pass articles dealing with a Community Development Block Grant and the leasing of the French Falls Recreation area.
The bulk of the proposed $5,638,877 budget for 2015-16, as recommended by both boards, was discussed Tuesday evening. The municipal budget includes one fewer position in both the Jay Police Department and Highway Department, with another half of a position moved from the Highway Department to the Transfer Station budget. Proposed increases include energy costs, negotiated 1 percent raises for some contracted employees and increased insurance costs. The budget also includes funds for department reserve accounts, something town officials cut out of most department budgets last year due to uncertainty relating to the request by the Verso Paper Corporation for an abatement.
The budget also includes a new, $50,000 line item under Professional Services entitled “Valuation Reserve,” with those funds to go toward the town’s expenses relating to Verso’s request. Last year, voters authorized the Selectboard to appropriate $300,000 out of the undesignated fund to pay for legal expenses and an industrial revaluation of the property.
Wednesday, both boards discussed the $168,000 Jay-Niles Library budget, which is $50 less than the current fiscal year’s budget, and $35,480 in requested donations. The library budget was recommended to pass as is, but both boards recommended holding donation requests to the same funding they had last year. This cut a little more than $7,000 out of the amount requested by the agencies, which range from American Red Cross and Healthy Community Coalition to Work First and Good Neighbor Tri-Town Fuel to town entities such as the Pulp & Paper Museum, July 4th fireworks and the local robotics team.
Most of the reductions to bring the requests to the current fiscal year’s funding were a few hundred dollars each. Exceptions were Safe Voices, which requested $5,000 and was recommended to receive $1,000; the Red Cross, which requested $2,000 and was recommended to receive $1,000; and Good Neighbor, which requested $5,000 and was recommended to receive $4,000.
In total, the recommended budget would result in a $92,657 increase in total expenses, or 1.67 percent. Projected revenues, however, are expected to fall $276,000 short of the current fiscal year’s revenue. That number does account for an additional $21,600 identified at Tuesday’s meeting as projected revenue, but it does not include any funds allocated by the Selectboard to reduce the tax impact on local assessments. The current fiscal year’s budget includes $750,000 out of the undesignated fund.
Two items will appear along with the municipal budget articles at the annual town meeting, which is conducted in a referendum format in Jay. The first article would authorize the town to submit an application for a $100,000 Workforce Development Grant through the Department of Economic and Community Development’s CDBG program, at no cost to the town. The funds from that grant could be used to create or enhance existing training programs to assist local employers in developing skilled workers.
The second article would authorize the Selectboard to lease land near the Androscoggin River, known locally as the French Falls Recreation Area. Currently owned by the Androscoggin Land Trust, the land would be leased to the town at no cost. The lease would include use of the roughly 10 acres of open field and associated parking amenities at French Falls, which includes a ball field, picnic tables and an ice skating rink.
The Jay town meeting voting takes place on April 28. A public hearing on March 16 to discuss the warrant articles will be held at 6 p.m. at the Spruce Mountain High School library.
