The Litchfield Select Board recently approved an $86,123 bid to repave the parking lot and pave the grassy area at the front of the town’s fire and rescue building. Town Manager Kelly Weissenfels said the changes will allow firefighters to pull vehicles out more effectively and will make the area easier to plow in the winter. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

LITCHFIELD — For the first time since it was built in 2002, the Litchfield Fire & Rescue Central Station on Hallowell Road will have its parking lot repaved.

The Select Board unanimously approved an $86,123 bid from All States Construction Inc. this week to repave the existing parking lot at the fire station and pave the grassy oval-shaped area at the front of the building.

Town Manager Kelly Weissenfels said earthwork will be done over the grassy area and then it will be paved.

“The place where the volunteer firefighters park right now is usually on that grass,” he said. “It will make it easier to plow in the wintertime, give them a better place to park and, more importantly, allow our trucks to be able to pull out more effectively.”

Residents approved $126,500 for the project during a special town meeting in August, and the $86,123 bid falls within the town’s expectations. The $126,500 figure was based on a paving estimate of $90,000, a materials estimate from public works of $25,000 and a vote by selectmen to add 10% to the total of $115,000, bringing it up to $126,500, to account for any increases that may occur due to inflation.

The town already has a paving contract on a per-ton basis with All States Construction Inc., which used those rates to provide the town with an initial quote for the fire station project, according to Weissenfels.

“That allowed us to go forward into the town meeting with a good estimate of how much it was going to cost us,” he said, “and that was a reasonable price.”

Weissenfels said selectmen suggested that the town seek additional bids after voters approved funding for the project.

After the town meeting, Litchfield put out a clarifying, written proposal, but it was not a formal request for proposals in which sealed bids arrive.

“We felt that we were able to make it a fair process,” he said, “but it wasn’t ideal. We would prefer to have a sealed bid, or in the case of estimates, to not let them hang out for more than a couple of weeks. We’d want to be able to get the estimates and make an award.”

The town also received an $88,000 bid from St. Laurent and Son Inc. of Lewiston.

Weissenfels said he believed every contractor the town talked to would have done a “quality job,” and that the decision to go with All States Construction Inc. was purely based on price.

“It is needed,” the town manager said of the project, “and we hope that it will have as great a longevity as the previous pave.”