Going over the details
After a week to think on it, Hagar Enterprises definitely still wants to plow Alna’s roads beginning this winter, a co-owner of the Damariscotta firm told Alna selectmen on Sept. 10.
The deal remains unsigned, but progress continued Wednesday night, with Seth Hagar’s assurances that the firm still wants the job, and selectmen’s decision to meet again with him on Sept. 17. In the meantime, the board planned to run part of the contract by the Maine Municipal Association.
Selectmen were unsure what measures to include in case voters at the annual town meeting next March reject the contract’s second and third years. Hagar proposed the board then go back out to bid, and give Hagar Enterprises a chance to match the lowest bid. But board members said they didn’t know if the contract could bind a future board of selectmen to go out to bid.
Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve’s and Third Selectman David Reingardt’s latest terms are both up next spring.
First Selectman David Abbott has a year and a half left on his latest term.
“Unless I drop dead, I’m still going to be here ... I’m sticking it out,” he told Hagar.
The contract draft the board reviewed included proposed changes to the one selectmen had given Hagar to review. Among Hagar’s suggestions was one to defer the town’s payments until next January. The town could use its extra time with the money to draw interest, invest it or otherwise benefit from waiting to pay, he said. The delayed payments could also help the town save $2,100 by eliminating the need for a performance bond, he said.
“So we’re actually performing without getting paid for several months,” Hagar said.
In other savings Hagar proposed, the firm would stack the winter sand and mix it with the salt for less than the town paid last year; and the firm would give the town a $2,900 break on year three of the contract.
Selectmen returned to allowing public comment, one week after they held a meeting without it. At Abbott’s recommendation, board members got all of their business done for the night before asking for comment, still a departure from their past habit of taking comments and questions on each agenda item before moving on to the next one. When the time came, no one brought up the plowing contract.
Resident Ralph Hilton asked about the board’s bidding policy, which originally called for going out to bid on costs expected to top $3,000; Hilton said the sand proposals selectmen and Hagar were discussing would run higher than $3,000; selectmen noted they revised the policy last year, so that a $3,000-plus expense would trigger the board’s consideration of going out to bid, but not require bidding. The change allowed the board to stop having to vote to suspend the policy each time members decided not to seek bids, selectmen said.
The board’s Sept. 17 meeting with Hagar was set for 7 p.m. at the town office.
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