JAY — The Select Board reviewed options Monday for having the Jay Police Department collaborate with the Wilton Police Department and added an ordinance addressing rent control to the warrant for the annual town meeting.
It also learned of plans for a large solar farm and revisited the curbside trash pickup article on the town meeting warrant.
The police presentation was the second given by the Wilton-Jay Police Collaboration Committee, which has been researching ways the two towns could provide police services together.
The committee first presented its findings Feb. 3 to the Wilton Board of Selectpersons.
Police Chief Joseph Sage of Jay and Wilton Chief Ethan Kyes outlined four options: make no changes; contract with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office; have one town provide police services for both; or form a quasi‑municipal corporation.
As in last week’s presentation in Wilton, much of the discussion focused on creating a quasi‑municipal corporation that would give each town equal control. The chiefs also shared information on how Pennsylvania consolidated 141 police departments into 43 regional units.
Kyes said the quasi‑municipal model would not diminish either town’s sense of identity.
“It’s not Jay. It’s not Wilton. It’s a joint entity controlled by both towns,” he said, calling it “shared government without absorption.”
The committee had listed “loss of local identity” and “loss of local control” as drawbacks to contracting with the Sheriff’s Office or having one town provide police services for both.
Sage said Jay already shares an animal control officer with Wilton in a “very seamless process, working with the Wilton Police Department.”
He also reported that Monmouth and Winthrop have agreed to operate a single police department.
Chief Paul Ferland of the Monmouth Police Department, who helped the Wilton-Jay Police Collaboration Committee, said in an email Wednesday, “Yes, we are proceeding … with our merger.”
He said that as of July 1, “we will be operating as a single unit with separate operating budgets. We will then develop a public safety commission, which will prepare an operating budget for FY2027–28.”
Contracting with the Sheriff’s Office also received a great deal of attention Monday.
Sage said the towns would lose some patrol time while paying higher costs for the Sheriff’s Office to provide full‑time coverage.
The proposal involving the Sheriff’s Office would increase costs by about $100,000 in the first year, with each town still responsible for providing office space and other support for the deputies.
Kyes said that if one town contracts with the other for policing, it would lose some sense of identity and local control.
“There would be no real sharing of resources,” he said, “because one town would shut down (its police department).”
Neither Jay nor Wilton has set a timeline for choosing a path to collaboration.
“We need to brainstorm our options,” Jay Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere said.
That process would include holding public listening sessions in each town, she said.
LaFreniere and Wilton Town Manager Maria Greeley served on the 12‑member committee.
A final decision on collaboration, made at annual or special town meetings, could be months away. Jay’s annual town meeting is set for April 28, and Wilton’s is scheduled for mid‑June.
The suggestion to find a way to cooperate on policing arose because both departments are struggling to recruit and retain officers. And, Sage said, “We’re doing identical work, really.”
He also said paperwork has increased dramatically and that “investigations are longer, more complex and more detailed than they used to be,” meaning the towns need more available officer time.
In other matters, the Jay Select Board quickly certified a proposed ordinance for the April 28 warrant that would establish a moratorium on rent increases in mobile home parks.
The freeze would be retroactive to Dec. 11.
LaFreniere shared with the board a petition signed by residents of the Pine Haven mobile home park asking the board to certify the proposed ordinance.
The board complied on a 4‑1 vote.
Selectman Thomas Goding voted against certification. Asked after the meeting why he voted no, Goding said, “A property owner has a right to earn a profit from his property.”
The board also heard plans for what would be the largest solar farm in Maine.
Dale Knapp, head of development for Walden Renewables in Portland, said the company is “in the very early stages of developing a project in Jay” and looking for landowners willing to lease property for solar energy arrays.
“We build, own and operate the farms,” he said.
Walden Renewables is negotiating with the new owners of the former Androscoggin Mill property to lease undeveloped land on the mill site. About 550 acres are undeveloped, Knapp said, but not all of it would be suitable for a solar farm.
An operation that size could generate up to 150 megawatts, he said. According to scienceinsights.org, one megawatt can power up to 719 houses, though developers typically use lower figures when planning solar farms — sometimes as low as 200 houses per megawatt.
At that lower estimate, a 150‑megawatt installation could power about 30,000 houses. At the maximum rate of 719, it could power roughly 107,000. Knapp said Walden Renewables would move forward with the project even if it could not lease the full 900 acres.
Knapp also said that because Walden Renewables would own and operate the arrays, the company has already made arrangements to return the land to other uses once the solar farm reaches the end of its life. According to U.S. Light Energy, a renewable energy development company in New York, a solar farm’s life expectancy is 25 to 30 years.
Developing the project would take three to four years, Knapp said, including lease acquisition, a lengthy permitting process and construction.
Finally, the Select Board revisited the wording of Article 21, which covers curbside trash pickup, on the town meeting warrant. The board voted 4‑1 not to include language saying recycling “will be available at the transfer station” but will not be collected at the curb unless Article 21(a) passes.
Article 21 would raise $10,000 to add recyclables to curbside trash pickup.
Public Works Director John Johnson told the board Jan. 26 that fewer than 20 percent of residents put recyclables out for pickup.
Articles 21 and 21(a) stand alone, with no reference to the other.
Selectman Gary McGrane opposed adding the phrase.
