PARIS – Selectmen voted 4-1 Monday night to award a Phillips Road repair contract to Everett Excavation of Norway.

Everett made an offer of $24,752 to replace a culvert and repair the road, which was damaged in the Patriot’s Day storm. The company narrowly beat out Kennagh Excavation of Paris, which bid $25,982. Pratt & Sons of Minot bid $49,800 for the job.

Kennagh had already done $12,216 worth of emergency work on the road during the storm, a fact which led Selectman Ernest Fitts III to oppose awarding the contract to the low bidder. In last week’s meeting, the absence of Selectmen Gerald Kilgore and William Merrill, coupled with Fitts’ opposition, forced the item to be tabled until Monday’s meeting.

Selectmen recognized Kennagh’s prior work, and some expressed caveats, but the majority agreed that it would be better for the town to award the contract to Everett.

“I would like to comment that Wayne Kennagh and David Everett both do excellent work,” Kilgore said. He said he regretted having to support the out-of-town company, but the lowest bid was best for the town.

“It’s kind of like changing horses in the middle of the stream,” Merrill said. However, he also noted how Everett was the only one of the three bidders who put in the price per square yard, which the town had asked for.

“Sometimes you don’t get the best work with the low bid,” said Fitts, who maintained his position.

Chairwoman Barbara Payne said Everett Excavation was a respectable company.

Selectman Raymond Glover motioned to award the contract to Everett, and was joined in the vote by Payne, Kilgore and Merrill. Fitts voted against the proposal.

The town will pay for the culverts, which Town Manager Sharon Jackson had previously estimated to cost $5,000. The total project is expected to cost somewhere in the range of $43,000.

The board also voted to sign the SAD 17 warrant for the budget referendum and approve the town meeting warrant for June 12 and June 16.

Jackson said the town has approximately $600,000 to collect in 2007 taxes. She also said the Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Remediation & Waste Management had denied the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s request to open the Paris Utility District’s closed landfills on Kilgore Road for deposit of lagoon waste from the A.C. Lawrence site.

According to a letter filed by Hank Aho, acting director for the remediation bureau, the proposal would create a new landfill or expand an existing one. Aho said such options are not feasible because the PUD site is over a significant sand and gravel aquifer and cannot be issued a permit.

Early in the meeting, Payne presented Merrill with an inscribed desktop clock, a gift from the board for his service to the town between 1998 and 2007.

Selectmen will meet next at 7 p.m. June 11 at the Town Office.