ROXBURY – Work could soon begin to put a metal roof on the new town office.

At a special selectmen’s meeting Monday night, board Chairman Mark Touchette and Selectman Douten Thomas OK’d Mexico contractor Michael Mann’s River Valley Home Improvements bid of $8,985 for installation of a dark green metal roof.

The other two bids were $7,500 plus a bond by Chris Durant of Constructive Solutions of Rumford Center, and $11,751.66 from Joseph Patenaude of Friday’s Contracting of Peru.

Touchette said selectmen weren’t obliged to take the lowest bid, having reserved the right to go with whom they chose. “I’ve heard no complaints of anybody about him,” Touchette said of Mann, who attended the meeting.

“It’s a little more money, but I’ve never heard anything bad about him,” he added.

Likewise, Thomas said he liked the new roofing work that Mann’s company did on the Mexico Congregational Church, known locally as the Green Church.

Selectman Alan Hodgkins was absent.

Touchette and Thomas agreed to meet Mann at the new municipal building site on Route 17 at 5:30 p.m. today to sign the contract and more closely examine the structure.

In other business, Touchette and Thomas awarded the winter sand contract to Archie’s Inc. of Mexico, accepting the only bid received, $7.88 per cubic yard. Normally, Touchette said, Roxbury would order 1,500 cubic yards for the winter. But, thanks to last winter’s no-show, the town doesn’t need as much to complement its leftover sand.