Selectmen agreed to pay an additional $26,000 in engineering fees to cover the extra design work
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – Voters will be asked to authorize another $26,000 in engineering fees for the new fire station at a special town meeting Aug. 11.

The 7 p.m. special meeting, which will be immediately followed by the regular selectmen’s meeting, was originally scheduled to correct an oversight regarding the updated agreement for Norway-Paris Solid Waste Corp. Voters at town meeting in June should have ratified the agreement then, but it was left off the warrant by mistake.

Several months ago, selectmen agreed to pay Oest Associates an additional $26,000 in engineering fees to cover the extra design work necessary on the project. At the time, selectmen were under the impression that there was enough money left from the $1.9 million project on Western Avenue to cover the extra engineering fees.

However, since then the parking lot has been paved, and there is only around $4,000 in the projects fund left – not enough to cover the engineering fees.

“We’ll have to go to a special town meeting,” said Ray Glover. “I don’t see any other way” to raise the funds.

Earlier in the evening, selectmen had authorized tapping up to $10,000 of the $15,000 contingency fund to replace a fire department tanker truck with a bent frame.

Fire Chief Bradley Frost said he has a lead on a truck the town can buy for $3,000, which would need another $5,000 or so to be retrofitted for use as a tanker truck.

Town Manager Steve McAllister had suggested using some of the capital funds earmarked in this year’s town budget for highway equipment, but selectmen didn’t think that would be proper.

Another option could have been for the highway department to give the Fire Department one of its trucks to be converted into a tank truck. But selectmen were reluctant to go that route.

“I don’t want to strip Frank (Danforth, highway foreman) of needed equipment,” said Selectman Bruce Hanson. “Things have been working too good to take equipment away from the Highway Department.”

Hanson did acknowledge that it was early in the year “to be dipping into” the town’s small contingency account. “But that’s what it’s for,” he added.

The Highway Department has $30,000 in capital reserves for equipment purchases that is part of a five-year plan. Next year the department will be getting a $75,000 sweeper, followed by new dump trucks in 2005 and 2006.

Frost said the twisted frame on the tanker truck could have been in that condition for several months.

It was noticed when the truck was moved to the new station. He said the truck cannot be driven as it is, and it is crucial that the town have a tanker truck available for out-of-town fires.

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