At the Alna Board of Selectmen’s regular meeting Oct. 27, Alna Road Commissioner Mike Trask drew fire from Selectman John Villeneuve over seemingly excessive truck rental charges related to end-of-year road construction.
Alna contracted with Trask’s own Quality Services construction company to complete miscellaneous roadwork throughout the town. In an invoice sent to the town, Trask charged $2050 for 18 days of pickup truck rental.
According to Villeneuve, U-haul would have charged $1275 for a similar rental. Larry Stewart’s Auto Sales would have charged $1107.
“Why is the town of Alna paying 80 percent more, 61 percent more in some cases?” Villeneuve asked, “What value are we getting from Quality Services?”
“I’m not going to change the price because I charge the same for my other customers,” Trask said.
Trask added that the town was getting the convenience of renting a truck in Alna rather than several towns away.
U-haul and Larry Stewart’s are based out of Portland and Lisbon respectively.
Trask was given $3600 in truck rental fees for work done in September and October Almost $4300 has been paid to Trask’s Quality Services for pickup truck rental this year. Town statutes require that all projects or services costing over $3000 must go out to bid.
According to a handout provided by the Board of Selectmen, the price difference appears to come from the method of billing: Trask charged by the hour for almost three weeks of labor, while the other companies offer monthly rates.
Villeneuve questioned Trask’s judgment on why he didn’t look around for a better price when the roadwork continued over several weeks.
“I want you as the Road Commissioner to get the best value for the town,” Villeneuve said.
Selectman David Reingardt agreed, adding that Trask should have been aware of the costs and notified the selectmen.
While Reingardt didn’t believe the cost difference amounted to anything nefarious on Trask’s part, he did warn the Road Commissioner that it might be construed as such.
“Is anything illegal going on here? No, but it tweaks people,” Reingardt said. “This amount of money is higher than most tax bills.”
Trask’s position as both Road Commissioner and owner of a business that directly benefits from his position has drawn the ire of some Alna residents. In February, town resident Mabel O’Brien asked the Board to consider a conflict of interest clause for municipal projects.
Defending Trask, town resident Chris Cooper said that the selectmen were slow to notice how long the road work would take and should have shopped around for better offers.
While Board Chair David Abbott conceded that the selectmen were slow to notice the extra work needed, Villeneuve disagreed, saying that he never saw a quote from Trask detailing the expected costs.
The selectmen, Villeneuve said, also did not want to get too heavily involved in the project.
“We’ve been accused of micromanaging before,” Villeneuve said.
The selectmen agreed to develop guidelines for multi-week rentals before next year.
“If we have an opportunity to save the town money we should do it,” Abbott said.
“I feel that it adds another level of bureaucracy that would be annoying for such a small payroll,” Jordan wrote in a later to the Board.
Jordan added that problems in the past with sending in tax forms in a timely fashion were specific to one treasurer.
Brewer said he would remind the treasurer on a monthly basis to make the necessary tax deposits when they are due.
