Naples board awards truck, culvert bids via e-mail

By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES — During the first meeting after Independence Day, the Naples Board of Selectmen was not free to vote. That’s because the meeting lacked a quorum. Only selectmen Jim Grattelo and Jim Turpin were present for the meeting of July 9. The meeting was subsequently cancelled.

Many of the items on that night’s agenda will simply be addressed during the next meeting, which is this upcoming Monday.

However, the awarding of bids could not be postponed for another two weeks so the board took care of that electronically.

The board members were able to vote on the bids via e-mail, something that Chairman Jim Grattelo had requested be done, according to Naples Town Manager John Hawley.

Two bids were awarded, Hawley said. A third bid item, involving masonry work on two brick buildings in the Village Green, was rejected with new bid proposals due this Friday, he said.

The more expensive bid is the purchase of a new truck that was approved at the annual town meeting. Two older vehicles were part of the trade-in, Hawley said.

The selectmen awarded that bid to Emerson Chevrolet-Buick, of Auburn. The town will purchase a Chevy 3500 truck for $35,900, that is to be used by the town’s Maintenance Department.

The truck will be utilized for “year-round outdoor maintenance of public spaces,” Hawley said. A plow attachment will be a separate purchase for wintertime use, he said.

P&K Sand and Gravel Inc., based in Naples, was awarded the second bid of $15,575 for a couple of culvert-replacement projects, Hawley said. The culverts in need of replacement are located on Lake House Road and at the intersection of Perley Road and Hazelton Lane, he said.

The third bid, which was rejected by selectmen, is for masonry work on town-owned buildings. The two brick buildings on the town hall campus are the new home of the Maine Blues Heritage Society Museum and the former location for the Antique Bottle and Glass Museum.

“The bids were rejected and sent out for new bids because of a large discrepancy between the two bids,” Hawley said. “The new bids will be due Friday and only the two contractors that bid the first time were allowed to bid,” he said.

“The chairman suggested we do an e-mail vote. The e-mail listed all the contractors that bid. I made the recommendations on the bids. It was my recommendation to the board to reject” the masonry work bids, Hawley said. “Doing so gave me the ability to meet with both contractors on site” and view and discuss the work “so we understood apples for apples what we wanted,” he said.

A fourth bid is down the road a ways — the referral for proposals (RFPs) have been prepared in order to hire an engineer for the turning lane off Route 35.

“We are going to bid out the engineering work this year. Construction will happen in the late spring or summer of 2019,” Hawley said. “The bids are due back July 31,” he said.

The next selectmen’s meeting is Monday, July 23.

It is not entirely uncommon for Naples board meetings to lack a quorum during the summertime since some of the selectmen hold jobs that go into high gear during the summer months.

Prior to the meeting on July 9, both Selectman Rich Cebra and Selectman Bob Caron II had notified the chairman that they would be absent.

According to Chairman Grattelo, Cebra was busy in Augusta, where he has a seat in the Maine House of Representatives; and Caron was also working at his job with the Windham Indoor Shooting Range and Retail Store. Grattelo said he had not heard from Selectman Kevin Rogers.