POLAND – Selectmen awarded a contract for trash hauling Tuesday night after questions were raised of possible unfair competition by the town with trash haulers

At issue is the town of Poland, which owns a trash truck, offering to provide service in Mechanic Falls.

Scott Ferland owns Almighty Waste of Auburn, the lowest bidder for Poland’s trash hauling contract. He took the town to task for proposing that all bids be thrown out and that the town do its own trash hauling.

When the selectmen heard all of the arguments, Almighty Waste was awarded a one-year contract with no guaranteed amount of waste to haul. The town could still haul some of its own waste and reserves the right to negotiate with Mechanic Falls to haul that town’s trash.

Tuesday afternoon Ferland told the Sun Journal that he spoke to Mechanic Falls Town Manager Dana Lee. Ferland said Lee told him he was confident that the town would have Poland haul their trash.

Lee acknowledged that Ferland’s statement was correct. “We’ve been negotiating with them for some time,” Lee said.

Poland Selectmen Chairman David Corcoran said there have been only informal discussions with Mechanic Falls and no price has been established.

Almighty Waste hauled for Mechanic Falls briefly. Pine Tree Waste is that town’s current provider. Ferland said before the selectmen’s meeting that he never hauled waste for Poland but he said he was the low bidder when Poland recently sought bids. “My first reaction was, I’m the low bidder at $90 per pull and they’re going to do it at $62.50. How are we going to compete? I’m a little upset that a tax-based entity is going into competition with private businesses. Norway is just down the road. We do Norway.”

Lee said he didn’t agree with Ferland’s statements that Poland is trying to take business away from private waste haulers. “They’re just doing this as a favor to us. They’re not going into the trash-hauling business,” Lee said.

At the selectmen’s meeting, Planning Board Chairman Larry Moreau said the town’s proposed figure to haul trash is unrealistic. “In your trip cost I can’t believe you can do it in one hour,” he said.

“Are we making government more complex here? Are we building an infrastructure we can’t tear down? I can’t believe we want to be in the trash-hauling business,” Moreau said. “Why don’t we sell them (Mechanic Falls) the truck and hire them to haul for us?”

He expressed concern about possible high maintenance costs associated with the town’s 1995 truck. “The next thing you know, we’re going to be in town meeting asking voters to buy a new truck because you are going to have commitments.”

“Are you going to put us waste haulers out of business with a government-funded truck?” Ferland asked the selectmen.