FORT KENT, Maine — Fort Kent officials approved public works purchases and a warrant for the third presentation of the MSAD 27 school budget during a Sept. 9 meeting.
The town awarded a paving bid to Northeast Paving for $125 per ton, or a total of $98,500. This was the lowest bid that the town received out of a total of four. Town Manager Suzie Paradis said this bid came in slightly higher than anticipated than what is available via the State of Maine LRAP program. The town voted to fund the remainder of $4,216 via funds in the special highway projects budget, which is set aside specifically for roads and paving and contained a total of $32,000.
The next item was for leases for two trucks for the department. This comes after the town decided not to renew a snow removal contract in which a group of roads were plowed and instead to have the town’s public works department take care of this work. In order to do so, the town needed to purchase two trucks.
The total cost for both vehicles is $457,000, and the town voted to go with a seven-year lease with a 4.61% interest rate, as this was not significantly higher than the 4.58% interest rate that goes with the five-year lease.
Council Christian Thorsnes asked Public Works Director Chad Pelletier if it would be possible to go with two used vehicles instead. Pelletier said the reason to go with new vehicles is that they have warranties, which are critical as the vehicles often encounter problems when the crew needs them the most.
He said the town’s fleet is also fairly old, with the oldest truck 25 years old and the newest truck at five years old. Thorsnes asked if he considered something that was around five or ten years old, but Pelletier said there wasn’t a major price difference between these vehicles and newer ones.
The funds will come out of the public works budget, which has already been approved. And even though the town needs to hire an additional worker for this, town officials said the cost will be roughly the same as it was under its previous contract, and that it will save money in the long run once the equipment is paid off.
The town also voted to replace an excavator that was in a recent accident by financing another valued at $158,000. Officials said the payments would be similar to the old excavator and that this would be favorable to waiting for repairs on the current vehicle. The town could receive the replacement excavator in just two weeks, but would have to wait until February or March of next year until the current excavator is fixed.
Pelletier said there is always a chance that the current vehicle could have future problems after it is returned, and that it would be a safer bet to go with a replacement.
