JAY — Selectpersons on Monday set the annual town meeting referendum for Tuesday, April 26, 2016, to coincide with the Regional School Unit 73 validation vote on the budget for 2016-17.

Selectpersons reviewed a draft timeline from Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere. The only item not on the schedule, she said, was a meeting between the Board of Selectpersons and Jay representatives on the RSU 73 board of directors. 

Under the timeline, nomination papers for the municipal election would be available Feb. 1. A workshop with the selectpersons, town manager, department heads and the Budget Committee would be held Feb. 1 at the Town Office.

The selectpersons, Budget Committee and department heads would meet Feb. 22 at Spruce Mountain High School library to make budget decisions.

On Feb. 23, the board and committee members will meet with representatives of the library and charitable and civic organizations in regards to the budget.

A public hearing will be scheduled for 6 p.m. March 26, 2016, at the Spruce Mountain High School library. Absentee ballots would be available on March 25.

In other business Monday, selectpersons tabled the Andy Valley Riders Snowmobile Club’s request for $5,000 from the town’s Recreation Reserve Account to go toward a new snowmobile to groom 34 miles of trails in town.

The board wanted to wait until Selectperson Steve McCourt is present at the next meeting Nov. 9. The board will discuss how it wants to proceed in the future on the donation request and insurances for Area Youth Sports and Spruce Mountain Ski Slope.

Liability insurance for AYS is paid from the Recreation Reserve Account but liability insurance for the Spruce Mountain Ski Slope is raised through taxation, LaFreniere said.

McCourt had mentioned last year to snowmobile club members that donations are normally done during budget time.

Selectpersons gave the club $5,000 last year and the club bought a new snowmobile. The club would like to upgrade a 2006 SWT Skandic drag sled with a 2016 four-stroke utility sled. The new engine would be more fuel efficient than the older two-cycle Skandic SWT, club President Mark Bickford told the board in a memo.

The new sled has an estimated 20 mpg to 23 mpg, which is a great improvement from the 5 mpg to 8 mpg, plus the additional cost of injection oil for the sled the club now uses, Bickford wrote.

The sled would help reduce the overall operating cost for the club. It is estimated it would spend $200 less in gas.

The club has a quote from a Ski-Doo dealer for a 2016 machine for $10,800. The club would pay the remainder of the cost.

“We have found the Skandic SWT works best and the club members prefer the SWT 24-inch track,” Bickford wrote.

Club members said they noticed a decrease in fuel use on the sled purchased last year.

Selectperson Terry Bergeron said he gets concerned that the majority of the Recreation Reserve Account is made up of money the town received when the trees were harvested from recreation land. The lot wouldn’t be cut for 15 to 20 years, he said.

LaFreniere said the balance on the reserve account is about $165,000 and about $135,000 came from the timber harvest.

About $897 a month goes into the reserve account from a company that leases land for a communications tower, Bergeron said. 

Club member Andy Hogan said the club would not be back next year to request more money because the two snowmobiles are the entire fleet, except for the PistonBully groomer the town bought years ago.

“We try to keep updated every 10 years,” club member Yoland Gauvin said.

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