The town of Damariscotta will pay more to mow and landscape its cemeteries due to dissatisfaction with the previous contractor.
The Damariscotta Board of Selectmen awarded a three-year contract for the work to J & H Landscaping Dec. 18. Jacob and Hilary Braley, of Bristol, own and operate J & H Landscaping.
The town will pay J & H Landscaping $20,500, $22,400 and $24,300 for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons, respectively.
The amount exceeds the low bid from the previous contractor, F & S Property Maintenance. Richard M. Farrell, of Damariscotta, owns and operates F & S Property Maintenance.
F & S Property Maintenance, the contractor for the previous four seasons, bid $14,200 for 2014 and $14,600 for 2015.
The Damariscotta Cemetery Committee, however, unanimously recommended the bid from J & H Landscaping.
A report by the committee cites several complaints about F & S Property Maintenance.
The contractor damaged gravestones, veteran flags, and the flowers at grave sites, according to the report. The report also describes generally sloppy work and failure to meet specific contract requirements. The contractor, upon confrontation, would contest the requirements.
“As taxpayers, we prefer to reduce costs wherever possible,” the committee report said. “In the case of the mowing contract, we are convinced that the lower contract price is not the best value and is not in the town’s best interest.”
Damariscotta Cemetery Committee members Lorraine Faherty and Pat McLean attended the meeting.
“I’m a volunteer,” McLean said. “I’ve spent over 100 hours doing some things that someone else should have done, who was being paid to do those things.”
The committee also pointed out that the town paid $20,000 for the contract before F & S Property Maintenance won the contract with a $12,935 bid in 2010.
J & H Landscaping bid $23,760 and $24,480 for 2014 and 2015. Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus and the cemetery committee negotiated a reduction in price for a three-year contract.
“The way they’re able to reduce their cost is sharpening their pencil and also through some reductions in scope, which are acceptable to the cemetery committee,” Lutkus said.
Lutkus said the board should either accept the three-year contract with J & H Landscaping or re-bid the contract in hopes of soliciting more bids.
“We had a number of contractors present for the pre-bid walk-through, but as you can see, only two of them bid on the contract,” Lutkus said.
The selectmen approved the three-year contract with J & H Landscaping 4-0-1. Chairman Josh Pinkham abstained.
Pinkham owns and operates a landscaping business. He abstained because he participated in the contractor walk-through, he said.
Farrell, the proprietor of F & S Property Maintenance, came to the meeting after the vote.
“That’s terrible,” Farrell told the selectmen after Pinkham informed him of the outcome. “That’s sad.”
The town will absorb an increase of $6,300 or 44.37 percent in the first year of the contract.
“That’s a lot of money,” Farrell said.
Damariscotta has three town cemeteries: Bethlehem Cemetery, on Back Meadow Road; Hillside Cemetery, on Church and Hodgdon streets; and Walpole Cemetery, on Bristol Road.
