BUCKFIELD — Thanks to a mild winter, the three public works employees and Road Foreman Phil Savage, a 100-foot by 55-foot sand/salt shed is nearing completion at a fraction of what the cost would have been for the job to be hired out.

The shed will hold 3,000 cubic yards of sand and salt and stands 30 feet to the peak of the roof.

According to Savage, the initial construction started three weeks ago and everything is done except some siding, the ridge cap and the two ends.

Last fall the concrete floor and foundation were laid. Throughout the winter, the road crew built the walls in 16 foot sections in the town garage.

Savage was the on site contractor but Tim Brooks was the outside consultant, who brought two workers to do the higher construction.

Town Manager Glen Holmes said they hired Cote Crane to lift the trusses into place.

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“We had anticipated this to take at least a day and a half,” Holmes said. “But thanks to Savage getting the crew to prefab five trusses together, the job was completed in six hours.”

Holmes said the cost will run about $130,000, but would have been well over $200,000 if the town had hired an outside company. The town used $52,000 from the general fund balance and the rest of the money came from the sand and salt shed reserve account, which had been accumulating for years, Holmes said.

Lowell Lumber was the low bidder for the building material and supplied all the materials.

Holmes praised Savage and his work crew.

“We wanted to give them as much time as possible when they were not plowing,” he said. “Fortunately we had a mild winter.”


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