Contractor questions Jay board about timber harvest bid

JAY — Johnny Castonguay of Livermore, who owns a house and 125 acres in Jay, asked selectpersons Monday to explain why he was not awarded the timber harvest contract, which would have given the town $16,290 more than the winning bid.

Selectmen voted 3-2 on May 10 to go with George Merrill & Son Logging of Jay to harvest an estimated 4,400 cords of wood on 155 acres of the gravel pit lot off East Jay and Belanger roads. Merrill bid $107,850 to selectively harvest timber marked by forester Steve Gettle of Jay.

Johnny Castonguay Logging & Trucking of Livermore bid $124,140.

DeMillo, Goding and Dalessandro voted in favor of awarding the contract to Merrill. Bergeron and Selectperson Gary McGrane opposed.

Goding and DeMillo said they favored Merrill because he had done a quality job when he harvested the East Jay Road gravel pit lot.

DeMillo said he wanted the brush left in the woods. Castonguay planned to chip some of the pulp while Merrill didn’t, which would have left the brush.

On his bid sheet, Castonguay left seven spaces for stumpage prices blank. He said there wasn’t that type of wood on the lot.

Merrill filled in all stumpage prices.

“I think I lost this bid for the wrong reasons,” Castonguay said.

McGrane, who voted in favor of awarding the contract to Castonguay, said he did it because there would be more revenue for the town. He also thought prices for the other wood that did not have a bid price could be negotiated.

Castonguay said he didn’t come to the Select Board meeting to get the job, but said they should make sure Merrill makes up the difference in the revenue.

“I don’t think you guys were looking out for what is best for the town,” he said.

Also, Monday, selectpersons voted 3-1 to spend up to $140,000 from a joint reserve account to build an addition to the control room at the Livermore Falls Wastewater Treatment plant.

Chairman Terry Bergeron, Vice Chairman Tim DeMillo and Selectperson Lee Ann Dalessandro voted in favor while Selectperson Gary McGrane opposed it. Selectperson Tom Goding abstained.

In regards to the addition, on May 18 the Livermore Falls Select Board approved spending up to $140,000 from the joint reserve account. Jay and Livermore Falls contribute to the reserve account.

Livermore Falls owns the plant but it takes the board in each town to approve spending money from the reserve.

Jay Sewer Superintendent Mark Holt, who will also serve as the Livermore Falls superintendent, gave the board a rundown of the cost, contractors and material to build a 16- by 28-foot addition for a superintendent’s office and a conference/training/meeting room.

Jay approved Holt acting as the general contractor for the project in April, after a sole bid came in at $395,000. Livermore Falls also approved it.

Goding, owner of Thomas C. Goding & Son building contractor, abstained from voting and told fellow selectpersons he planned to bid on the project.

Holt told selectpersons Monday that he checked with five local contractors for quotes to build the addition and renovate the control building. All were too busy to do the job in the scheduled timeframe. Several local companies will do different aspects of it.

Goding was able to squeeze the project in and gave a price of $25,500 for the construction and renovation part of the project.

McGrane said he believed there was a conflict of interest for Goding to build the addition. Jay and Livermore Falls share a majority of expenses, including operation and maintenance of the plant.

McGrane said each part of the project should have gone out to bid.

Holt pointed out that it did go out to bid.

Holt said he may need to add up to $15,000 to the project because of engineering expenses and will try to use other funding for it. An estimated $12 million upgrade to the plant will begin in September and the addition needs to be finished by then.