After the Town Council approved a nearly $15,000 contract for holiday lights on the Town Common, two local business owners came forward to offer their services and asked the council to cancel the contract.
At the Tuesday, Nov. 12 meeting, Director of Public Works (DPW) Dave Wholley presented a proposal to replace the holiday lights on the Town Commons.
Wholley explained that the Fire Department used to light the trees, until 2018, when the Town paid for the lights to be on the trees. By 2021, when Wholley took over they were mostly broken.
He said they were able to make them work in 2021, and the last couple of seasons they have been able to put lights up, however, they have since been damaged from major storms.
While the DPW has been trying to help out, Wholley said, “We really need to get away from this business,” explaining that they are down four positions.
It’s why Wholley explained that the Commons is “going to be fairly dark unless I get some decisions tonight on which way you want to go.”
Wholley told the board that there aren’t many people in the business of putting up holiday lights, however, he said they were able to get two different quotes. He also noted that the funds would come out of the Town Manager’s budget.
“I think it makes sense to move forward with something that’s done professionally as our town staff is stretched at the limits,” Town Council Vice Chair Ted Combes said.
Wholley said the prices would also take care of the maintenance, and take them down and put them away. He presented the Town Council with different proposals ranging in price.
If they were to move forward with it, Wholley said the idea would be to put it in the budget each year, and to see if they could get potentially better pricing by doing a bid in the future for multiple years.
“I would recommend doing the bid process next year,” Finance Director Justin Campo said.
Town Councilor Ron Dunn said he was concerned with spending that much money on the lights at this time.
“It’s tough for me to sit here and authorize $11,000 to spend on Christmas lights when we’ve got people in town that can’t afford certain things,” Dunn said.
Campo explained that if they were to use funds from the Town Common line, it would be over expended for this year.
“I wanted you guys to make this decision,” Campo said, explaining he didn’t think it was a priority with everything else happening in Town.
Councilor Shawn Faber said he didn’t think it was a large line item in comparison to other things.
“We’re looking at optics too guys, we’re going to spend $11,000 on holiday lights,” Dunn said.
It was also explained that the contract would have the company remove the lights each season, the town would not own the lights.
Members approved going with the option which would cost $14,988, with the hope of potentially being able to get a lower price from the company.
Fast forward one week, at the Town Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 18.
During Public Comment, a number of citizens questioned the decision of the excess spending.
Tom Estey, of Estey Lumber and Country Store and Eric Turcotte, of Turcotte Tree Service, told the council they had offered to donate the lights and the installation at no cost to the taxpayers.
Resident Richard Bielinski was frustrated with how the contract was awarded last week, saying the council had not followed the proper purchasing policy.
He said, “What was disturbing to me was how the money was appropriated. As far as I’m concerned, it was illegally appropriated.”
He explained the bidding process wasn’t followed saying that anything over $10K needed three bids, or the Town Manager could over-ride it if there was an emergency.
He said, “Why are we not following the purchasing policy? The council should be leading, showing people how it’s done.”
Turcotte explained that what was being asked to have done on the Town Common was “nothing” for him to do. He would be glad to offer his service.
He also mentioned that he had posted what he was offering on Facebook and had hundreds of residents offering help.
He said he thought the contract was just wasteful. “Especially to not own the lights.”
“I want to know how we can stop this, from my understanding we have until tomorrow.”
Estey spoke on buying the lights, saying that he had spoken with Chad Franz and Wholley on his proposal, saying, “I was going to buy the lights and Eric was going to put them up.”
He added that Turcotte had the equipment and the insurance to do the job and he would be buying the lights. “All I would need to know from Wholley is how many strands I would need to buy.”
In the end, the council voted to move forward with the donation and void the contract they had previously ok’d.