PERU – After heated debate, the Board of Selectmen voted Monday to solicit bids from contractors interested in improving the town’s gravel and tarred roads.

The town approved a $400,000 bond in March to pay for the work.

Road Commissioner David Gammon said he favored having two contractors, one for gravel roads and one for tarred roads.

However, road project manager Dale Carlton presented a bid package that calls for one contractor for the entire project.

Selectman Bill Hine said the board favored one contractor for accountability.

Dwayne Vaughn of Vaughn Trucking has worked with Gammon on the previous eight miles of gravel work in Peru, which he said has held up very well.

“Why are you changing ships in the middle of the ocean if you are happy with what Gammon has done?” Vaughn asked. “You can’t go with an outside contractor and have the best interest of the town at heart. I pay taxes in Peru, and I care about how the money is spent, but I can’t bid on this job because I don’t do tarred roads.”

Selectman Norman DeRoche said, “Why can’t you bid on the job? You can hire a paving contractor.”

Vaughn said it would cost the town more.

“You people need to get on the same page and stop the feuding,” Selectman Rodney Jamison told Carlton and Gammon.

“I’ll do whatever the board wants,” said Carlton, a former state highway department employee. “I don’t want David’s job. I’m retired.”

The board agreed Carlton is not replacing Gammon, but they do have issues over the way Gammon keeps his worksheets.

Hine told Gammon, “I asked you a year ago to document what roads you are working on, and I don’t see that documentation. I would like to keep a record of how much time and money we have spent on individual roads, and I can’t do that if I don’t know where you are doing work.”

After more than an hour of discussion, the board voted to accept the bid package as written by Carlton and stay with one contractor.

Another issue that heated up the meeting was discussion with assessor agent Bob Gingras.

Hine wanted to know what a view tax is and why some lots on Worthley Pond got a 50 percent discount on assessment.

“There is no view tax. Like property on the lake is all valued using the same chart,” Gingras told him. He said the 50 percent discount goes to vacant lots that are buildable but have no water, sewer or driveway.

Warren Oldham asked why his 18- by 100-foot lot is assessed at $18,000 when he can’t do anything with it.

Gingras said all small lots are valued the same, but most of the small areas on the lake have property that continues across the road.

Oldham no longer owns property across the road from his small lakeshore property.

Gingras said lake property is still very much underassessed. He cited a recent sale for $700,000 on property assessed for $200,000. He said by 2010 property will have to be reassessed.

He said assessors try to be consistent and look at market value.

Gingras will be working in town until Thursday.