PARIS — The Highway Department is in the market for a new plow truck, but if bids aren’t solicited until after the June town meeting a truck won’t be ready until next February or March, Director Jamie Hutchinson told selectmen Monday night.

Town Manager Dawn Noyes said there is $100,000 in the 2020-21 budget to put toward a new truck. Another $105,000 would have to be added, pending voter approval in June, she said.

Hutchinson said that means the town would solicit bids in the summer, a timeline that’s not exactly ideal for winter plowing.

“I won’t lie to you,” he said. “We won’t get the truck until February or March if we put (a bid) in at July,” he said.

Dealerships usually take trade-in trucks, and that gap could leave the town without coverage during the first few months of the winter, he said.

“That’s the only problem with trading a truck in . . . when you trade them in, when you purchase a truck, they take the truck,” Hutchinson said. “That’s why the last time we didn’t do that because we could have sat without a truck until March.”

The town could sell the truck outright, though Hutchinson said it would be a tough sale.

“There’s not a lot of people looking for them,” he said. “You have to find somebody like a small contractor.”

Town Clerk Elizabeth Knox suggested soliciting bids before the town meeting, making them contingent on voters approving the money.

Hutchinson said dealerships often raise prices in that scenario.

“They jack the price up,” he said, because of the fact that the purchase is pending voter approval.

The board made no decision on the issue.

Voters approve the municipal budget in June.

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