JAY – The Board of Selectpersons approved a request for bids to repair the roof of a Public Works Department storage building Monday evening. They also discussed a new contract with Waste Management and replacing of two aging pickup trucks.
The building in question is located near the Public Works Garage: an unheated, shingled barn constructed in 1977 that is used to store equipment. The roof, which is 100 feet long and roughly half of that in width, is now leaking. In addition to the original shingles, the building is capped by a pair of cupolas with peaked roofs and weather vanes.
The board eventually decided to request bids for four different methods of fixing the issue. These included re-shingling the roof as is, stripping the shingles off and replacing them with new ones, stripping the shingles off and replacing them with metal, or affixing a metal roof on top of the existing shingles using strapping. The cupolas would be left in place, after town officials agreed that removing and disposing the structures, then replacing them with plywood, would not save the town significant money.
The project could be funded in part by the Public Works Department’s building reserve fund, which currently includes $59,000. The board approved having bids due back on Dec. 20 with work to be complete by May 30. Bid specifications for each option would be made available by the town office.
The board also approved having the town manager sign a new Solid Waste Disposal Agreement with Waste Management. That company, which currently provides a place in Norridgewock for the town to dispose of its trash, was the cheapest after calculating in mileage. The cost per ton is currently $59.74 for both solid waste and demolition/bulky debris.
The town’s current contract will be up next year. The new, five-year contract holds the town’s current rate for the first year, then includes an increase based on the Consumer Price Index. That increase would be a minimum of 1 percent and a maximum of 2.5 percent.
The board also voted to have town officials begin gathering trade values for two vehicles: a 2008 Ford F250 used by Public Works and a 2007 F350 at the transfer station. The idea would be to replace both vehicles with a single crew cab truck. According to the department, both existing vehicles have developed age and use-related issues that will likely require higher repair costs this year. The majority of the board agreed to have officials develop trade-in values and a possible replacement vehicle. The town currently has $195,000 in the Public Works Department’s equipment reserve.
The board also received a report about a sewer department generator that failed to properly run during the power outage that accompanied the severe storms that swept across the state two weeks ago. Operating at a lower level, Superintendent Mark Holt said, the generator was only capable of running the wastewater treatment station’s motors at 80 percent and it was fortunate they didn’t burn out. Central Maine Power was able to rapidly restore power, Holt said, but the generator needed to be repaired or replaced.
The generators that operate the sewer department motors have not been run significantly over the years, approximately 576 hours, but they are 45-plus years old. Holt said that he would be discussing replacing the generators, which he said had been generally oversized for their associated tasks and unreliable, on an “as needed” basis at future meetings. The replacement of those generators appears within the department’s capital equipment plan.
