HARTFORD – The standing-room-only crowd at Thursday night’s selectmen’s meeting was nearly equally divided about the condition of town roads this winter.

Board Chairman David Bowen and Selectman Hope McCabe expressed their frustration to road contractor Willie Bragg. Selectman Lee Holman recused herself from the discussion because of a conflict of interest.

“I have records going back for every year since I became a selectman five years ago, and I have never had as many calls,” McCabe said. “I have had it.”

Road Commissioner Jeremy Johnson said Bragg was not organized in his handling of the crews. He said when he called Bragg to ask what roads his trucks were on, he didn’t seem to know.

Bragg replied that the crews had their own runs.

Johnson said also that Bragg was starting too late in the morning to have the roads passable for people to get to work. Bragg admitted that he had overslept one morning. Johnson disputed that it was only one morning.

There was disagreement about whether road conditions had delayed people going work; some said they had had no trouble, others said they did.

It was noted that there had been concern last fall about Bragg having his trucks ready. His first check was withheld until it was determined by the road commissioner that the trucks were ready.

The timeliness of road clearing seemed to be the main issue. The contract states that the roads should be cleared in 48 hours. Bowen said that part of the policy would be rewritten, so that it was clear that the contractor didn’t have 48 hours to plow the roads but to respond to complaints, widen roads and wing back the snow.

“I think the contract needs a greater capability of dealing with extraordinary snowfalls. It’s difficult to evaluate this kind of situation without having comparative data on complaints. When I lived in Maryland I could sit a week without being able to get my car out,” Daryl Boness said.

“Rather than dumping on an individual here, the thing to do is sit back and evaluate, analyze and decide if something should be done differently next year in terms of policy and contracts to address this as opposed to using our emotions,” Boness continued.

Bowen ended the discussion by telling Bragg, “We would like to see improvements, Willie. What’s being done is not to our satisfaction.”

In other news, the board accepted the resignation of David Kraske from the Budget Committee and appointed Leslie Boness to the committee.

The summer mowing bid was given to Three Seasons Lawn Care of Poland.

Selectmen reviewed a comparison of costs for Fire and Rescue from the three towns that serve Hartford: Canton Fire charges $5,000 to cover 39 roads; Turner Fire charges $5,000 to cover 25 roads; Buckfield Fire charges $7,374.70 to cover 17 roads. Turner Rescue charges $3,000 to cover 70 roads; while Buckfield Rescue charges $2,719.20 to cover nine roads. McCabe said she would be talking to Buckfield next week about the charges.