BETHEL — Selectmen unanimously voted Monday evening to award a bid for timber harvesting on Mount Will in Newry to Day Brothers Inc. of Otisfield.

The board took bids from several different individuals and companies under consideration, but ultimately went with the Day Brothers, citing its willingness to chip the wood on the mountain as a deciding factor.

Sherman Small, the town forester, explained to the board that when it comes to chipping the wood, it’s ultimately up to the board to decide whether it wants to or not. Town Manager Jim Doar said that “chipping is the higher priced option,” but that it’s worth doing “unless there’s a strong preference to not doing it.”

In other business, selectmen unanimously voted to transfer capital funds from the reserve account to replace a pump on Fire Engine 1. Fire Chief Mike Jodrey said that there was “no one catastrophe that lead to the pump being broken.

“The truck’s 11 years old,” Jodrey said. “We test it every year, and in the last couple of fires, it just wasn’t performing up to snuff. Over time, it started pumping dirty water.”

Jodrey added that the “biggest amount of money will come from labor,” and that “there are about 13 fixtures to disassemble and 40 different plumbing routes on the truck to take apart.”

Doar told the board that the funds to replace the pump will come from the $100,000 that was set aside in the budget as the town reserve. The board elected to move between $10,000 and $20,000 to help replace the pump, adding that the money will be replaced.

Jodrey also told board members that they’ll be able to save $600 by shipping the parts needed for the pump by ground instead of air freight.

“Any way to save money helps,” Chairman Stan Howe said.

mdaigle@sunjournal.com

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