Views diverged in Alna on Feb. 19 on how the town is faring with its new plowing contractor.

Fire Chief Mike Trask called on selectmen to pay closer attention to Hagar Enterprises’ work on the roads, while selectmen and another resident expressed satisfaction with the job the Damariscotta firm is doing.

“I think they’re doing a pretty darn good job,” resident Lynne Flaccus said. She and Third Selectman David Reingardt said Head Tide Hill, a tall hill with the Sheepscot River at its foot, has been well-sanded.

“I think Hagar is doing a good job at pushing the snow back,” Reingardt added. First Selectman David Abbott agreed; Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve was not at Thursday’s meeting.

The comments supportive of Hagar Enterprises’ performance followed Trask’s statements about recent, post-storm snowdrifts on Route 218. Four-inch drifts were eight inches deep three hours later, he said. Drifts cause vehicles to pull to the left or right, he said.

Trask maintained that, although he called Abbott about the snowdrifts, they did not appear to have been plowed until the next day. When he checked later the night that the drifts had formed, he said, “There were all kinds of wheel tracks. There’s no way they plowed it.”

However, Abbott said a Hagar Enterprises plow truck was in town after he called the firm. The truck went by his house on West Alna Road, Abbott said.

Hagar Enterprises co-owner Seth Hagar did not immediately return a message left Thursday night.

Assistant Fire Chief Roger Whitney, who also heads the town’s emergency management, told selectmen that the previous plowing contractor, Mark Hanley, kept up with plowing the drifts that Route 218 gets.

Less snow should be built up at intersections, Trask added. “Somebody’s going to get T-boned .... You guys should pay a little more attention to that stuff .... They’re not taking care of the roads,” he said about the new contractor.

At a special town meeting in 2014, Trask proposed that voters have the selectmen hire Hanley back; the proposal passed, but then a Maine Municipal Association lawyer said the vote was void because it veered too far from the question on the meeting’s warrant. Selectmen went through with their plans to hire Hagar Enterprises.

Selectmen have said they put the plowing contract out to bid last year after Hanley retracted his offer. Hagar Enterprises was the lone bidder.

Budget talks continue

Trask’s budget offer to selectmen on Thursday was slightly less than last year’s budget for the fire department. The $64,687 proposal drops funding for First Responders’ supplies and licensing. The program is set to shut down at the end of February for lack of volunteers to train and serve.

Abbott and Reingardt did not oppose Trask’s request to carry over $7,000 from last year for First Responders training. Then the money will be available if volunteers come forward in the next year, Trask said.

Villeneuve will also review the department’s budget proposal, selectmen said; Abbott expects it to go before voters intact.

Trask said the budget’s $1,074 drop from last year keeps with a five-year flat budget pledge he made last year when voters approved a new fire truck. The truck should arrive in town this spring, he said.

Whitney asked for $500 to replace road barricades for emergency management. Motorists continue to destroy them, he said; but he withdrew the funding request after selectmen said he could make the buy with money from the civil emergency preparedness account; that account has more than $2,900 in it, selectmen said.

Deed nearly done

Abbott and Reingardt signed a deed to turn over the town’s share of a lot near Bog Road to Nicole Moore of Wiscasset. A prior select board in 2001 signed the lot over to Moore’s grandfather William Rines and his brother Glenwood Rines, years after Glenwood Rines’ death. Lawyers recently determined that the town still owned half the lot because the hand-off to the brother who had died did not count.

The new deed still awaited Villeneuve’s signature, town officials said.