Alna selectmen

Board nods Dec. 15 town vote to finish funding plow pact

SUSAN JOHNS
Fri, 12/02/2022 - 8:45am
File photo

    The vote is on in Alna for the rest of the funds to cover a one-year, $325,000 plow deal after a Woolwich firm’s pullout last month. Selectmen Nov. 30 agreed on the warrant for a special town meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 15 at the fire station.

    The warrant proposes tapping surplus for $45,000; and letting the board carry over any funds left from this fiscal year to next. Alna’s fiscal year ends Jan. 31. Town auditor Fred Brewer drafted the question and town counsel, the town clerks and Maine Municipal Association have reviewed the warrant, First Selectman Ed Pentaleri said.

    Nov. 22, the board picked Whitefield’s Mike Jewett for one year of services, in place of the final year of Holbrook Excavating’s three-year pact. Because Jewett had equipment to line up after his bid won, Pentaleri hadn’t expected him to be ready to start and no snowstorms were in the forecast, Pentaleri recalled in the Nov. 30 meeting. But the morning of Nov. 25 Pentaleri got a resident’s call about a spinout on black ice at the Dock Road bridge, and Jewett went right out and treated that area and two other bridges in town, Pentaleri said.

    “He got out there right away ... It got us off to a really good start, and I really appreciate that.”

    Pentaleri again thanked ad hoc plow committee members Jeff Averill, Jeff Verney, Carrie Kipfer, Mike Trask, Calvin Cooper and Chris Cooper. “I think the selectboard and the entire town have benefited tremendously from their knowledge, experience and wisdom,” he said.

    Also Nov. 30, the board set annual elections for Friday, March 24 and the open town meeting for Saturday, March 25; nomination papers would be available starting Wednesday, Dec. 14 and be due Tuesday, Jan. 24, Pentaleri said.

    Selectmen agreed to get the town office meeting room a heat pump from Heat Pumps Maine for $4,750 if the Damariscotta business gets pre-qualified under a new offer from Efficiency Maine. Pentaleri said the agency is offering small towns up to $2,800 each toward air source heat pumps, like the one he said the main office already has. He predicted the second pump will quickly pay for itself through lower power bills. It may be installed in December or January, he said.
     
    The pump would also shrink the wattage of automatic generator needed for the town office, Second Selectman Linda Kristan said. The board has been seeking a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant for the generator, Pentaleri explained.

    Other offers on the pump were from Lincoln Enterprises of Woolwich, $5,419; Midcoast Energy Systems of Damariscotta, $5,377; and Augusta Fuel Co. of Augusta, $5,901, Pentaleri said.

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