JAY — The Select Board accepted a $6,500 grant Monday from the Stephen & Tabitha King Foundation for the Fire Department to get a rescue boat. 

Fire Rescue Chief Mike Booker said that he wrote for a $6,500 grant from the foundation for a boat package after realizing they could have used it during heavy rain and flooding last year. He was notified late last week the department received it. 

During heavy flooding on June 29, 2023, and Dec. 18, 2023, there were times that people were stranded and couldn’t get out to get food or fuel.

In December 2023, a man clung to a pole in the midst of the freezing flooding water for about an hour in Dixfield and nearly washed away, Booker said.

Canton and Dixfield fire departments couldn’t reach him because of flooding and washed-out roads, but Jay Fire Rescue could reach and was able to rescue the man, he said.

“We definitely saw the need for a boat,” Booker said

Due to the grant, a new 12-foot, 8-inch inflatable rescue boat, 20 hp motor and a trailer are on order. It will seat six people, Booker said.

Millions of dollars in damage occurred to roads and infrastructure. Nearly every road was washed out during the storms and some could not be repaired until this year. There was also over $100,000 in damage to one of two fire stations that Jay has.

In other business, the board voted to pay $11,670 to PDQ Door Co. in Waterville for an overhead door at the Public Works garage. The 20-by-14-foot door will come with a standard duty hoist opener. The door had previously stopped working and is unusable until it gets fixed. The quote includes changing out the old door and installing the new door.

In another matter, board Chairman Terry Bergeron reminded residents that the new schedule for collecting recyclables will begin Thursday. Trash will be collected on both Wednesday and Thursday.

However, Archies Inc. of Mexico, which provides the curbside collection service of trash and recyclables, will only collect recyclables on Thursdays. The board made that decision in November after the parties met previously.

Selectperson Lee Ann Dalessandro said in November that residents have complained that some recyclables are being put into the trash. The representative of Archie’s Inc., meanwhile, told the Recycling Committee that nonrecyclable items are placed sometimes into containers for recyclables, which ruins the whole load of recyclables. It then goes into the trash, Dalessandro said.