JAY – Residents elected a new selectperson and voted down two town department budgets at Tuesday’s town meeting referendum vote.
Gary McGrane, a former county commissioner, was elected to the Board of Selectpersons with 247 votes, surpassing incumbent Selectperson Tom Goding’s 218 votes and fellow challenger Anthony Couture’s 167 votes. Selectperson Timothy DeMillo was reelected to the board, receiving 396 votes to challenger Ricky Merrill’s 218 votes. A total of 647 ballot were counted as part of the town meeting referendum.
Also elected was Dale LeBlanc and Robert Staples to the RSU 73 school board, running unopposed. Incumbent Board of Trustees members Gerald Hutchinson and Raymond Fleury II were reelected respectively to the Jay Village and North Jay water districts, also running unopposed.
Two budgetary articles failed to pass: Article 7, which proposed to set the Town Government budget at $464,000, was voted down with 258 yes votes and 375 no votes; and Article 14, setting the Sewer Department budget at $531,000, was voted down by a vote of 251 yes and 378 no. As proposed, the budgets would have represented decreases of roughly $40,000 and $10,000, respectively, as compared to the current fiscal year.
The board discussed the eventuality of budgetary articles failing to pass at Tuesday’s selectperson meeting, agreeing that the board would meet with budget committee members and department heads on Monday, May 1, if possible. The location of that meeting has yet to be determined.
Two other articles were extremely close: Article 11, which set the Police Department budget at $658,000, passed by a single vote; while Article 16, which passed the Public Works Department budget at $1.2 million, passed by two votes. Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere said that ballot clerks recounted the police department vote by hand and that the total, 320 yes and 319 no, equaled the machine count.
The police budget represents a $95,000 reduction from the current fiscal year, including the elimination of a detective position and replacing it with a 16-hour-a-week part-time position, saving the town approximately $70,000 in salary and benefits.
A reduced budget for the Transfer Station also passed, effectively eliminating curbside pickup in Jay as of July 1, 2017. There will also likely be a decrease in the number of hours the transfer station is open each week.
I wonder why the two articles didn’t pass as I haven’t heard grumbling around town. It is the school budget that is too high. Wonder what will happen with that.
Congratulations to Gary McGrane for his win. Now the town of Jay is finally on the right track.
@ Nell,
How haven’t you heard grumblings around town? Where do you hang out, the town office?
Im not sure what the employees pay for health insurance, if any. But I work for a local school district and have to pay 18%, approximately $5000 a year, of my insurance premiums. The district picks up the 82% which is approximately $25,000. If their premiums are paid in full by tax payers, I dont think it would hurt them to pick up a percentage out of their wages.
I hope they take a look at the salaried positions 60+k for a
Town Clerk and 50+k for a Finance Director. They put in roughly
37.5 hours per week on an 8-4 work day. Not many towns our size have these
high paid salary positions. Most are hourly and some
even part time. As for insurance yes they should pay more, but the employee should not be blamed it is the select board that approves the contracts.
Not sure why Nell hasn’t heard any grumbling I have heard plenty! Mostly about the highway department being way overstaffed and the town office also. People probably voted the sewer budget down because people are paying a lot already. And if it is going up people are going to leave this town because they can’t afford their taxes. Homes in town are already selling for rock bottom prices! She is however right that the school budget will get voted down probably because they are foolishly adding maintenance and bus drivers and eliminating teachers their priorities are really messed up!
The people who voted to cut a Police Department position in these tough times don’t cry when crimes don’t get solved, overtime pay goes up and less services to the nonviolent complaints. Apparently no one was paying attention to the town meetings. People, we need to start voicing our opinions and going to town meetings to see what you are actually voting for/against.
Jay Tax Payer…as an employee of a local school district, not Jay, I can vouch for the need of bus drivers and maintenance needs. Im fully aware of the expense these positions cost, but they are a needed to get students to school (THE LAW) and as for maintenance to the buildings, all you need to do is take a look at the former LFHS. This is what can be expected to happen to our buildings if we dont take care of them. Im sure your a home owner and you know as well as I do the cost of maintaining a structure takes money and manpower.
Scott , Having done custodial/maintenance work in the past, I know the work involved. Also being a home owner I know the need for upkeep. I believe Jay taxpayer was referring to waste. Efficiency is the key here. Can we consolidate the children and still transport them safely? Do we need several building/grounds people? Should windows be left open a week at a time in winter? Cutting teachers directly affects every child, but that seems to be where we start every time .In today’s economy we need to be thrifty not wasteful.
I guess I didn’t express my thoughts correctly Martin Jones. I have heard grumbling for years but what I didn’t realize was that finally taxpayers would do something instead of just bitching. Sorry but I don’t hang out at the town office. It looks like some kind of organized vote. I don’t think electing Gary McGrane will be a plus but we will see.
I think people knew exactly what they were voting for.
Salaries and benefits at the town of Jay are out of line with other towns. There are simply too many employees.
The town office must make do with less.
Voters also balked at the large staff in the police department and the highway department.
Sewer bills are also skyrocketing. Again, pay and benefits and the number of employees all drive up the cost of this sewer department. They must be challenged to reign in the number of employees. Of course they are going to tell us why this cannot be done.
Anxious to see how the contract negotiations have reigned in these costs and crazy rules.
Go Gary!!!!!
Jo Josephson
The towns people are finally saying enough is enough.I personally dont believe enough has been done. We as a town need to stop putting our heads in the sand. Shrinking of goverment will not happen as long as we have Selectpersons that are just a yes vote for the town.That is why i’m proud that Gary was ellected. So far as the police department goes,why dont we use the sheriff’s department more. We pay for this service with county taxes.
A couple things:
As far as using the sheriff’s Dept more; do you remember we used to have our own dispatch. We were going to save money by getting rid of that and use the county. We lost control of the quality of service and our county taxes went up because they had to have more people and a bigger building. I feel that was a bad move we did.
The sewer is a beast because of regulations. There are only two people employed to keep that functional 24/7 – 365. The failed budget line item reduced that to 1.5 employees. It will be interesting how that can be reduced without us getting fined for be out of compliance some time during the year.
The reductions will get done, but they need to be done in a rational not emotional way.
After the next town budget meeting I suggest people go to the next school board budget meeting where the numbers get finalized and voted on. Usually that meeting contains 80-90% school employees and family and the votes come out accordingly. After that one there is only the yes or no vote.
As far as the office salaries they are in line with what those positions cost at a company employing the equivalent number of people.
They work all year long.
Most of the employees at the school unit have the summer off and are salaried with benefits at a substantially higher rate.
There is a big picture to look at when the property tax rates for all three towns are to be considered.
Just stuff to ponder when trying to figure out how to help get the overall budget into a workable position.
Well I do not understand why my previous comment was not posted.
So I will try again.
I am not sure that having faith that Gary McGrane will take on the municipal union as far as personnel costs given his work history as a union leader and as a government worker (high benefits).
Although I admire his passion, as demonstrated in an account published on December 22, 1990 by the Portland Press Herald that describes his arrest raising donations for strikers while dressed as Santa Claus, I hope he does not treat the taxpayers money like Santa.
.