LIVERMORE FALLS — RSU 73 directors voted 9-2 Thursday to award the contract for snow removal and sanding to Jean Castonguay Logging and Excavation Inc. of Livermore Falls.

The one year agreement for $85,000 is to take care of plowing and sanding at schools and buildings in Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls. The contract also includes plowing Community Drive that begins at Route 4 and leads up to schools in Jay.

“That’s a lot of money,” board Chairwoman Denise Rodzen of Livermore Falls said. She and Ann Souther, also of Livermore Falls, opposed the vote.

The contract does not include plowing sidewalks, which school personnel will be responsible for.

The contract also carries a fuel surcharge if fuel increases 50 cents or more per gallon over the current price of fuel factored currently at $3.89 a gallon. If it goes above $4.30 a gallon then the district will be charged the additional 50 cents, Transportation Director Ken Vining said.

Castonguay’s bid was the only one the district received to cover both campuses, Superintendent Bob Wall said.

Another contractor bid on doing just the south campus in Livermore and Livermore Falls at a cost of $23,000, Vining said. However, that contractor was not interested in doing Jay schools, he said.

Souther asked if it was possible to negotiate the contract.

“That’s a huge amount of money,” she said.

Jay schools were formerly done by Jay’s Highway Department when the schools were a department of the town, Wall said.

The town was not interested in doing Jay schools this year, he said.

The $85,000 is $10,000 more than budgeted, Wall said.

Vining said he believes the contract has been negotiated as far as it can.

Director Tim Madden of Livermore said that doing all the schools and buildings will be a demand on the company.

The reason this is high is because there is a risk. He has to protect his company, Madden said.

Weather changes quickly and the areas need to be plowed on time for school to open, events to go on, and for when students get out of school.

Wall said the difficulty is projecting what it would cost to do Jay schools.

Vining said Castonguay checked ahead of time to see what it may cost and wanted to make sure he covered himself.

“I want snow every day,” Rodzen said for the amount of money.

Castonguay wanted a two-year contract with the option to negotiate a third, Vining said. But the way the bid specifications went out was for only the 2011-12 school year. The bid notification would have to be put out to everyone again if it was to be a two-year contract, he said.

“It could snow” at any time, Vining said.

The contractor will be paid in five monthly installments ranging from $14,000 a month to $19,000.

In other business, directors voted unanimously to declare two buses surplus property to go out to bid.

One is a 1993 International, 73-passenger with 151,857 miles on it. The other is a 1997 International 69 passenger with 179,041 miles on it. These are the worst two of the fleet, Vining said.

The mileage might seem low but the bodies give out, Wall said.

Vining said he usually likes to try and get 200,000 miles out of a bus before getting rid of it.

The district bought two new buses this year.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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