The town’s current plow needs
repairing before
this winter.
WEST PARIS – Selectmen on Thursday unanimously supported an article in the March 2004 meeting warrant asking voters to approve buying a new plow truck.
An official vote was tabled until Road Commissioner Bill Keach presents bids from dealers.
The truck would replace a 1984 Ford. Keach said it needs repairs before winter, “but we can do the repairs to keep it going for now.”
In agreeing with Keach that a warrant article is needed, board Chairman Wade Rainey said, “I don’t have a problem with putting an article in the warrant for March. Just get some prices so we will know what we are talking about. Get some prices and we’ll look them over to see what the best way to do this is.”
Selectmen also agreed that the 1984 Ford will have to be repaired so it will be in service this winter, but they recommended that the repairs be done as inexpensively as possible.
“We don’t want to spend a lot of money on a truck that we may get rid of next spring,” Selectman Howard Gurney said, “so try to do the job as cheaply as possible.”
Keach said he probably can repair the old truck by replacing some bearings for around $200 and possibly a pinion shaft, if needed. He was not sure of the cost of the pinion shaft, but said the thought he and his crew could do most of them reasonably.
“I’ll get the truck ready to go and try to have some prices of a new truck before Dec. 15, which is the deadline for budget items, and we’ll go from there,” Keach said.
He said the new truck would cost probably between $65,000 and $75,000.
The last new truck the town bought was a 2000 Sterling. The other truck in the fleet is a 1994 Ford.
The board also authorized Keach to rent a Brush Hog mower from H.P. Fairfield of Skowhegan to brush beside town roads next week. The cost for 40 hours is $1,700.
Selectman Harlan Abbott was appointed representative to the Executive Board for the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments.
The position as alternate went to Gurney, who has held that position for the past several years.
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