Sometimes, there needs to be flexibility in choosing bids, Newcastle Selectmen’s Chairman Brian Foote said.

Sometimes, the highest (or the second highest) ends up being the best bid, he said, before the board approved, 5-0, to continue its partnership with F & S Landscaping for its cemetery contract.

F & S’s bid, which was for $21,084 for approximately a year-and-a-half of mowing and maintaining Newcastle’s cemeteries, was the second-highest bid received during the board’s previous meeting.

Selectman Christopher Doherty said his inclination was to go with the lowest bid, which in this case was a $16,500 bid from Property Care Plus. Cemetery trustee co-chairman Tom Stevens said he’d had previous experience with both F & S and Property Care Plus and would recommend either.

But, there was a problem with Property Care Plus’s bid, Selectman Ellen Dickens said. The company didn’t attend a voluntary walk-through of the project earlier in the year, while the other three bidders did.

“I’m bothered personally that they didn’t go on the walk-through, and I wonder whether the person would be comfortable with what’s required,” she said. “I’d leave it with F & S; they know what’s expected.”

F & S has held the contract for the cemeteries for the last four years.