JAY — Selectpersons voted 4-1 Monday to donate $300 to the annual Independence Day Parade on July 3. The funds will come from the board’s contingency account.

The money will go toward liability insurance and other expenses.

Vice Chairman Justin Merrill opposed the vote.

Livermore and Livermore Falls also contribute to the tri-town parade, parade committee member and organizer Barbara Cook of Jay said prior to the vote. Livermore Falls and Livermore donated $300.

Cook said insurance for the parade last year was a nonrefundable $412. She planned to go Tuesday to get insurance for next week’s parade and would find out the cost then.

Cook said she was not asking the town to pay the insurance — just to donate a small amount to help with expenses.

Parade insurance for the volunteers and bystanders was $600 for the Memorial Parade. Verso Paper Corp. picked up the tab for the three towns for that parade.

The only problem is that the board’s practice on donation requests is to require them to be made to the town so they can be included in a proposed budget that goes before voters annually in June, board Chairman Steve McCourt said.

Letters are sent out to organizations and others who request funds in January or February, Town Manager Ruth Cushman said.

Selectman Tim DeMillo said he did not have a problem with the request this year.

McCourt said that in the past, the board has taken money from its contingency account when necessary.

In other business, selectmen voted unanimously to have Brak Cox of Livermore do the cleaning and repair of cemetery stones in the East Jay Road and Jay Hill cemeteries.

The cost is $1,780 to clean 269 stones, as well as perform necessary repairs on five of the stones and straighten and level some others, Cushman said. The cost is $5,100 to clean 819 stones and do some repairs in the Jay Hill Cemetery, she said.

The money will come out of a cemetery reserve account that has more than $39,000 in it.

The effort to clean stones and make repairs in town cemeteries began last year.

In another matter, the board voted to appoint Jerry Hutchinson to serve as trustee of the Jay Village Water District. The decision came after discussion on whether a nonratepayer could serve on the board. Merrill said there is a similar makeup of two ratepayers and one nonratepayer on the trustees of the North Jay Water District.

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