Alna selectmen have tweaked their bidding policy multiple times since they created it in 2011. But when resident Ralph Hilton asked for a copy recently, no one could find one reflecting the last change they agreed to make to it, in 2013.

“We do not have it ... We have searched and searched,” Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve said March 11 about the version the board has nonetheless been following for nearly two years. The board should have made sure the updated policy was on file, he said.

“I’m sorry, Ralph,” he told Hilton in the town office’s meeting room. “We screwed up.”

According to the Wiscasset Newspaper’s coverage of a May 16, 2013 selectmen’s meeting, the board that night agreed to change a portion that had called for bidding on projects expected to cost more than $3,000. Instead, a projection that high would trigger a discussion between selectmen and the town official proposing the project; then the work could go out to bid or not, as selectmen saw fit.

Prior to that decision, whenever selectmen decided against going out to bid, they would take a vote to suspend the policy. The change was aimed at removing that step.

Villeneuve on March 11 described the policy as one of the most talked about items selectmen have worked on in the last four years. With past versions and drafts of versions, he and fellow board members reconstructed it.

Hilton told selectmen to take more time if they needed it. “You don’t have to rush into this just because I asked for it and it wasn’t there,” he said.

But Villeneuve said he would like to get it done before he leaves the board. He did not seek a third term in the March 20 elections.

The bidding policy stemmed from a lengthy controversy over whether or not then-Road Commissioner Mike Trask should have picked his business for thousands of dollars in roadwork for the town. Some selectmen and some residents described it as a conflict of interest, a claim Trask consistently denied. He went on to end a long run as road commissioner by not seeking reelection in March  2011; the following month, the board passed the policy that called for seeking bids depending on a project’s projected cost.

The policy the board completed March 11 includes the intended, May 2013 change. “All non-emergency projects expected to exceed ($3,000) will be reviewed by the Board of Selectmen, to determine if it is in the best interest of the Town to put the project out to bid,” the new version states.

Selectmen briefly discussed whether or not to call for performance bonds for bids that exceed $50,000. Hilton spoke in favor of the measure. He said it could spare the town a huge expense if a contractor didn’t finish a job. “Why would we set ourselves up for that,” he asked.

Selectmen decided to have the policy state that bids exceeding $50,000 “must include the consideration of a performance bond.”

The board kept a revision it made early in the policy’s existence. That piece continues to spare the Alna Fire Department from falling under the policy, by exempting quasi-municipal organizations.