Selectmen Stick With Known Quantity for Snow Plowing

(Lamoine) — Do you go with the best price, or go with good assurance that for a 11% more you’ll continue to receive superior service? That was the dilemma facing Selectmen as they awarded the snow plowing contract for the next three years to Nankervis Trucking of Franklin.
The Nankervis crew has plowed Lamoine’s roads for the past three years, and the town received very few complaints about their work. But their bid of $90,000 a year was $9,000 a year more than a company called Backside Plowing from Southwest Harbor. A check of Backside’s references found good satisfaction with their work, but as Selectman Glenn Crawford put it, they didn’t have any municipal experience. Owner George Seavey said they were attracted to the Lamoine bid in order to consolidate their operation. He also said he would not bid on future contracts because of the town’s reluctance to choose his firm.
The Nankervis bid is to continue with the same salt/sand mixture as in the past. A first round of bids using straight salt proved to be significantly more expensive that continuing with the present program. The State DOT uses a salt program on Route 184, but has specially rigged trucks to lay it down.