JAY — Three towns are working with a regional planning agency in Auburn on a grant application to help develop a master plan for recreational opportunities as part of a downtown revitalization effort.

The Jay Select Board voted Monday to approve Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere’s letter of support to go with the application that will be submitted in a grant application.

Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls are partnering with and support of AVCOG on a grant application to the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection Agency’s Recreation Economy for Rural Communities planning assistance program, that would “focus on recreational planning as an economic driver for our communities,” LaFreniere wrote in the letter of support.

AVCOG, or the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments, is considered a regional planning agency and is providing the technical expertise for the grant application and will oversee it, if approved.

“The programs focus on outdoor recreation as a way to revitalize main streets and its assistance in the working with the community to develop an action plan, through connecting federal, state, regional and local expertise with a local steering committee, would be a significant benefit in the area,” LaFreniere wrote in letter.

Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls have worked together for decades in several capacities, including jointly owning Spruce Mountain Ski Area in Jay, a family oriented slope on the “banks of the Androscoggin River and running a summer recreation program for children in the community,” according to LaFreniere.

Representatives from the town have been working together, again, for several months “to create a plan to bring the vision of using the towns’ outdoor recreational opportunities as an economic development driver to make our region more attractive to current and future residents as well as the businesses looking to locate here and draw employees to the area,” she wrote.

Not only do the three towns work together for recreation purposes, all three towns’ schoolchildren attend Regional School Unit 73.

There is also Area Youth Sports organization that offers athletic options to the children. Jay has a very active Recreation Committee that puts on community events for children and adults.

The town plans to work with the regional planning agency to facilitate forming a steering committee, completing the community self-assessment, planning calls, workshop sessions, steering committee meetings, planning a community tour, engaging community member participation and helping implement the action plan, according LaFreniere’s letter.

LaFreniere and others hope the federal agency recognizes the importance of recreation planning and how it will influence the downtown revitalization in the Jay, Livermore, and Livermore Falls region.