LIVERMORE FALLS — Highway Foreman Bill Nichols told selectmen at their meeting Tuesday night, June 18, that the price for a F600 is being negotiated.

“The F600 is sitting in Farmington up to Home Auto Group,” Nichols said. “They are having a little issue with the price. When the truck was ordered last April it was ordered for a 2024. Somehow it got dropped out of the order by Ford Motor Co., the truck got delivered as a 2025.”

Like everything else, there is a price increase, Nichols noted. “Home Auto Group is trying to negotiate with Ford to help out because it was not our fault that it got dropped out of the order,” he stated.

Nichols checked with dealerships in Maine and New Hampshire, all said the price is accurate for what the price went up in one year. “My gut feeling is we are probably going to end up paying a little more,” he said. “My goal is to not pay the whole thing. We are still negotiating. The truck is in Farmington, I have seen it, so it is getting closer since this has been a two year project of trying to get the truck here.”

Plow gear for the truck is at the Transfer Station, Nichols said.

“How much was the original cost projection,” Selectman Jim Long asked. “Are we talking a lot more, a couple thousand.”

The 2024 price was $66,444, anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 for the 2025 is what Nichols found. “They are a hot commodity truck now because CDL (commercial drivers license) drivers are so hard to find that those companies are buying those trucks because they can have somebody with a regular license,” he said. “Their motto is three yards being hauled is better than no yards being hauled.”

The board also approved putting bids out for a wheeler plow truck.

Nichols spoke with different salesmen a few weeks ago at a Skowhegan show on what specifications should be put into the request. He completed 90% of the specs put together Monday, planned to finish them Thursday. He wants to send the specs to five dealers for competitive quotes.

When asked where the new truck would be used Nichols said a different truck would be seen on Moose River Road, not the new one. “We have been trying to keep the new truck in East Livermore,” he stated. “That is the farthest route. I would rather have the newest truck on the farthest side. If something goes wrong with the oldest truck it’s a lot closer to get it to the garage where half of the route is on one side of the garage, the other half of the route is on the other side. It seems to work pretty good.”

A contract extension was also approved for Spencer Group Paving in Turner.

“Spencer Group is going to carry over the paving this year,” Nichols said. “They just went up the bare minimum, $3 per ton on base paving and $13 a ton for surface paving which is pretty much the liquid asphalt price increase and labor increases for them.”

With all the rain last year, Cargill, Searles and Vine didn’t get surfaced, those will be at last year’s contract price, Nichols noted. “This year we had to drop Union Street, School and part of Latham,” he said. Shim and overlay of Gagnon Street will be done this year, will pretty much finish that end of town on paving, he stated.

“Spencer Group is using us very well on the increase,” Nichols said. Paving expenses are cheaper than what other towns are paying, he noted.

Work at the sewer department is nearing an end, paving there should be possible this fall, weather permitting, Nichols said.

When asked about sidewalks on Knapp St., Nichols said the curbing has been obtained, those can be paved with the water district project.