TURNER – Selectmen have tabled a Town Office Committee recommendation to hire H.E. Callahan Co. as a construction manager for a new town office project.

A larger town office will be built at the office’s present site at the intersection of Routes 4 and 117.

Committee member Jeff Timberlake presented the proposal to the board. He said the group had asked for interested parties to respond to request for proposals, that five had done so, and the committee had interviewed three. He said it was the consensus of the committee to nominate Callahan to draft plans for the office and present cost figures. He said Callahan would present a contract proposal next week.

Selectmen questioned Timberlake as to why an architect hadn’t been selected to manage the construction, as is normal procedure; about what the costs would be for Callahan to manage the project; and about the lack of information in their meeting packets regarding the proposal.

Suggestions were made by selectmen and by Kurt Youland, a local developer and businessman, that the committee rethink its recommendation, consider hiring an architect to design the building and manage its construction, and report back to the selectmen, at the least, what the town would be paying Callahan to manage the job.

Selectmen wanted to know the percentage of the project cost Callahan would be paid as manager, and Timberlake didn’t have the answer.

The questioning and non-acceptance of the committee’s plans clearly angered Timberlake, who described the process the committee had adopted with Callahan as “a design/build concept” that would move the whole project process along faster and save money.

Timberlake told selectmen that if the committee’s plan was tabled, “You will have wasted a whole day of my life. I’m mad, but I won’t go away.”

Selectmen voted to table the committee’s proposal until the next meeting on Nov. 6.

In other action, the board:

• appointed Fire Chief Michael Arsenault and Selectman and Rescue Paramedic Charlie Mock to an Androscoggin County communications committee that is considering a centralized dispatch center at a cost of at least $1.5 million, and average yearly costs to Turner of $50,000 to $60,000. Turner’s rescue and volunteer fire-fighting force are currently dispatched at minimal cost through the county sheriff’s department.

• honored Warren “Butch” Clark for his dedicated volunteerism this summer at Turner Beach on Bear Pond. Clark monitored the operation at the beach under the town’s new permit system. The board’s letter to Clark noted that he spent weeks at the facility and fully volunteered his time to oversee the permit system and police other matters. “We greatly appreciate your tireless efforts,” selectmen wrote.