NORWAY – The Norway-Paris Solid Waste Corp. is considering hiring a waste hauler to handle transfer station operations at its Brown Street station.

At a Monday meeting of the corporation’s board of directors, the board held off action after receiving two preliminary bids from private waste hauling companies.

The first bid was from Pine Tree Waste Co., a subsidiary of Casella Waste Systems, for $360,000 a year. The second was from Almighty Waste of Auburn, for $381,000 a year.

But NPSW Manager Alison McCrady said it was difficult to compare the two bids, because Pine Tree did not include provisions for recycling computer monitors and TVs, tires or appliances.

“It’s our duty to investigate any cost savings to the towns, but it’s a premature conclusion that it would happen,” McCrady said Tuesday.

Norway-Paris Solid Waste is a quasi-municipal service founded in the early 1980s. The corporation runs both the transfer station and the Frost Hill landfill, which opened in 1994.

Each town raised appropriations of $240,000 apiece this year to run the corporation.

Norway Town Manager David Holt, who attended Monday’s board meeting, said he wished the seven-member board had consulted with town officials before asking for bids to contract the operation.

“I personally wish that they had been more open about this,” he said. Holt said the board offered to meet with selectmen in both towns.

“Steve and I want to make sure we make good decisions for the taxpayers,” said Holt, referring to Paris Town Manager Steve McAlister, who also attended the meeting along with Paris Selectman Bruce Hanson.

McCrady said she and her staff were unaware of the board’s interest in contracting the operation until last week.

“It is the right thing to do to look into it,” she said, but added, “This needs a lot of evaluation and more thought.” She noted that the corporation currently uses trustees from the Oxford County Jail to help tear apart mattresses and furniture, a labor-intensive operation. Transfer station employees also assist at the adjacent recycling center.

Almighty Waste has been doing the waste hauling for the Norway Paris Solid Waste for the past year, McCrady said. She added that several terms of board members are due to expire July 1.