Otisfield Board of Selectmen Chairman Hal Ferguson talks to Selectman Rick Micklon (not pictured) Wednesday about NeoKraft’s proposal for an electronic message board.

OTISFIELD — The Board of Selectmen unanimously voted Wednesday evening to accept a $21,859 bid from NeoKraft in Lewiston to construct an electronic message board and sign for the town office building.

Townspeople in June authorized using up to $25,000 from the timber reserve account to buy and install an electronic digital sign to replace the changeable letter one in front of the building on Route 121.

The sign selectmen proposed is black and white and looks similar to the one now in use.

Selectman Rick Micklon said town office employees can change the brightness and the size of the text.

During the town meeting, residents asked Micklon and the other board members to seek other bids besides NeoKraft. Micklon said he and Administrative Assistant Anne Pastore contacted several companies throughout the state.

“I spoke with Terry Swett in South Paris, the elder statesman of sign people in the area,” Micklon said. “He said that he could design and make the sign that would go above the electronic message board, but could not do the message board itself. He said we’re better off on finding one company to do it all.”

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He said he spoke with the manager of the Sign Store in Auburn, who said he would pass on the a bid because the electronic message board Otisfield was seeking was “above their capabilities.”

Micklon said Muddy River Signs in Bridgton also passed on the opportunity and Bailey Signs in Westbrook said that while they would be willing to submit a quote for an electronic message board with amber or full color text, they “did not work with the color white.”

“I think that Rick did a good job of reaching out to other companies, and after getting the replies, I think we’re good to go with NeoKraft,” Chairman Hal Ferguson said. “They have the best value and they’re a good, local company.”

Micklon said NeoKraft “won’t be able to get to our sign in September, but they said they’d be shocked if they didn’t get to it by October.”

The Board of Selectmen also voted unanimously to approve a cable TV ordinance for the town.

Ferguson said the ordinance Pastore drafted used one from Raymond as a template.

“Anne went through and modified some of the language so that it fit the town of Otisfield, rather than Raymond,” Ferguson said. “I sent the ordinance to Phil Saucier, our town attorney, and he said that as far as he’s concerned, the ordinance is fine as written.”

Selectman Lenny Adler said, “If our town attorney is happy with it, then so am I.”

mdaigle@sunmediagroup.net

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