Alna could lose two of its three selectmen over a decision voters made at a special town meeting Aug. 25, eschewing the board’s decision to go with the lone bidder on the next snow plowing contract.

Instead, in a 17-4 vote, residents instructed the board to again hire the contractor of the last several years, Hanley Construction. The firm had retracted an offer and then didn’t submit a bid, selectmen said.

“This is monkey business, at best,” Third Selectman David Reingardt told residents.

Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve said he didn’t think a town meeting could tell selectmen to contract with a specific vendor.

“I’ll resign over it. I think it’s illegal,” he said.

Both that statement and one Reingardt went on to make about possibly resigning took place during the meeting. After the meeting, Villeneuve and Reingardt each declined immediate comment on whether they would resign.

Selectmen had called Monday night’s meeting in the historic Alna Meetinghouse to raise an extra $20,000 over what voters approved at the annual town meeting in March. Five thousand dollars would have been to cover any hike in sand and salt costs; the rest was to meet payments under the bid selectmen awarded to Hagar Enterprises.

But that’s not the deal Alna Fire Chief and former road commissioner Mike Trask and the majority of Monday’s voters wanted for the town.

Trask said that when he heard about Hagar’s bid, he contacted Mark Hanley of Hanley Construction and got dollar figures from him for a contract that would keep the business on as the town’s plowing contractor. The cost is cheaper than the Hagar bid, but selectmen raised a number of issues over it.

For one, they had shaken hands with Seth Hagar, the business’ vice president, after it was the only bid that came in on the contract and they agreed to award it to him, board members said.

That constituted a verbal agreement that, if broken, could risk a lawsuit, Reingardt told meeting-goers. That information came from the Maine Municipal Association, he said.

“If this doesn’t fly somehow this year ... I guarantee you I will resign over this because I think it’ll be a conflict of interest, because I think what will happen is, I’ll be Mr. Hagar’s number one star witness for what happened .... We represent the town as selectmen, whether you like us or not, maybe you all think we’re stupid. We represent the town as selectmen, so we awarded this contract to Mr. Hagar. It was printed in the paper he was awarded this contract ... and there’s this real aspect that went on, too, we all shook his hands like gentlemen, congratulations, you’ve got the contract.”

The savings the town sees under a contract with Hanley will be less than what the town could end up paying in lawyer’s fees, Reingardt said.

Selectmen also took issue with a part of Trask’s handout stating that the selectmen had rejected a $7,000 hike Hanley had originally proposed for his next contract with the town.

First Selectman David Abbott called that a misstatement; “We did not reject his offer. He retracted his offer,” Abbott said.

Anyone could have bid, but only Hagar did, and it’s not fair to take a lower offer from someone else, now that Hagar’s numbers are known, board members argued.

“I don’t think it’s a right thing to do,” Abbott said during debate.

As for Trask’s statements about an offer from Hanley, Abbott said he hadn’t heard from Hanley about it.

“I wonder if Hanley even knows about it,” Abbott said.

Hanley did not immediately return a message Monday night.

Trask said later that he didn’t want to pay any more taxes than he had to, and that the town and Hanley had had a longstanding relationship of treating each other well. When the board called the special town meeting for plowing money, that meant the board did not yet have an agreement, he said.

Seth Hagar attended Monday’s meeting. Asked afterward if the firm would take any action in response to the meeting’s outcome, he said, “I can’t say at this point.”

Related:

Alna plowing contract up for grabs

Alna preps for next plow deal

Alna calls town vote on plow cost hike