Ludlow voters approve municipal budget, debate snow plowing

  LUDLOW, Maine — The question of who will plow Ludlow’s roads next winter, dominated discussion at the town’s annual meeting Thursday as about 40 voters came out to vote on municipal matters.
Earlier in the day at the polls, voters re-elected Greg Dow to the town’s board of selectmen. Dow received 79 votes, while Jack Hanson collected 15 votes. The town also voted by referendum to begin the process of withdrawing from SAD 70. (See accompanying story).
    Voters approved a municipal budget of $340,039. That figure is down nearly $59,000 (14.8 percent) from last year. According to Town Manager Diane Hines, the exact tax impact will not be known until the county tax and SAD 70 budgets are finalized, but there should be little to no impact on the town’s mill rate.
A decrease of nearly $10,000 to the town’s building maintenance account was achieved when construction projects were completed last summer. An additional savings of $10,000 was achieved in the winter roads account, while $20,000 was saved in the road maintenance account.
Tax bills are traditionally sent out around the first of September. Last year, the town’s mill rate was 16.2 mills. The town’s withdrawal from SAD 70 could be completed by the start of the next school year.
At times, tempers flared during the meeting as residents questioned the process of why the bid for snow removal was awarded prior to the annual meeting and why the individual whom had previously done the work, and is a resident of Ludlow, was not chosen for next year.
According to Hines, the board of selectmen were able to lower the amount raised for snow removal and sanding for 2012-13 by $10,000 by awarding the plow contract to Steelstone Construction of Houlton. In previous years, Ludlow resident Randy Reeves was awarded the plowing contract.
“Can I ask why we went with Steelstone, please?” resident Lenny Carmichael asked.
Hines explained the town put the plowing and sanding contract out to bid and received four tenders for the job.
“We went with the most reasonable and responsible bid,” she explained.
She added the bid by Steelstone was not the lowest the town received. The lowest bid, however, was rejected by selectmen because of the individual’s equipment.
Other residents stated that by choosing Steelstone over Reeves, they were in essence putting four Ludlow families out of work.
“Why are we not keeping the money right here in our town?” Carmichael said. “Do we really expect to get the same level of service from people who don’t live in our town? We all know that Ludlow gets different storms than other towns. Houlton is 10 miles away. If we need the road plowed at 3 a.m. is it going to get done?”
One resident asked what the procedure would be for reconsidering the awarding of the snow removal/sanding bid.
Hines explained that because they have already awarded the bid, it would be illegal for the town to go back and change its decision. She added the plan was to advertise the town was taking bids for the snow removal contract after the annual town meeting, but a request was made to have the bids done beforehand. Hines was initially reluctant to say who asked selectmen to do the bid process before the town meeting, but later in the meeting stated Reeves asked selectmen to seek bids beforehand.
At Thursday’s meeting, Reeves denied that was the case.
The contract was awarded during a regular selectmen’s meeting, with little to no discussion by members of the public at that time, Hines said. She added the difference in price between Steelstone’s and Reeves’ bids was $20,000.
The contract is for one year, Hines said. The article passed by a vote of 27-12.
All other warrant articles passed as written Thursday, with the exception of an article pertaining to care of the Ludlow Cemetery. Selectmen recommended $2,500, but voters only authorized $2,000.