Old wounds reopened in Alna May 2, as former road commissioner Mike Trask and selectmen tangled anew over the board’s bidding policy.

There was even a shouting match.

 Third Selectman David Reingardt swore and twice threatened to walk out of the meeting.

“I’m done with these meetings where you take control,” he told Trask.

Trask accused selectmen of insulting him. And Road Commissioner Jeff Verney said he was getting afraid to take care of any roadwork himself because Trask would think he was out to make money.

“My problem is not with you,” Trask told Verney. “It’s with them, with the bidding policy.”

The discussion centered on Trask’s assertion that the board doesn’t micromanage Verney like he feels they did him, when he was road commissioner.

The board passed the bidding policy two years ago, after months of meetings where some residents and sometimes some selectmen claimed Trask had a conflict of interest in doing thousands of dollars of roadwork that didn’t go out to bid.

“I think we should change the name to the Trask bidding policy, ‘cause that’s pretty much how I see it,” Trask said.

Earlier in the meeting, selectmen granted Verney’s request to hire contractor Jack Shaw to grade the town’s dirt roads, at a cost up to $3,500. The bidding policy calls for non-emergency projects to go out to bid if they’re expected to exceed $3,000.

But in a 2-1 vote, with First Selectman David Abbott opposed, Reingardt and Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve suspended the policy, allowing Shaw to get the work without it going out to bid.

Trask had argued for bidding, but Verney stressed Shaw’s good grading equipment and several decades of experience that the town likely wouldn’t get with someone who would do the work for less. With Shaw doing it, the roads might not even need grading next year, Verney said.

At one point, Verney suggested the board get rid of the policy as too constraining.. He said he wouldn’t do anything costlier than $3,000 without going to the board, anyway.

Villeneuve and Reingardt defended the policy, as ensuring accountability. When Abbott said the policy could use some work, Villeneuve pressed him to propose a change.

“I’m not going to have a five-week discussion or an eight-week discussion,” Villeneuve said.

Also during the discussion, Villeneuve floated his view on Trask’s issues with the board’s handling of road matters and the policy.

“I think it’s a little bit of sour grapes,” Villeneuve said.

Trask started yelling: “Where do you get off? You are a public figure, aren’t you? I would appreciate some taxpayer respect.”

Reingardt stood up from his seat at the board table, yelling, and claimed Trask was taking control of board meetings. The board will need to move to a more formal format, with people raising their hands before addressing the board, he said.

As for Verney’s concern about whether he could do smaller roadwork jobs such as changing a culvert without coming to the board, board members said that wasn’t an issue. But he does need to be looking around town for items that may be small by themselves, but could be grouped together as a project to go out to bid, they said.

Past piece-mealing of roadwork such as weekly bills for patching that could have been considered a larger project helped lead to the policy, selectmen said.

Trask was road commissioner for about a decade, and chose not to run in 2012, a year into the policy. Verney has been road commissioner since then.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com