The Westport Island Board of Selectmen received two bids for paving the town office parking lot and a small portion of the Fowles Point Road.
Harry C. Crooker & Sons Inc. bid $36,859 with the town to provide the necessary gravel. Gene Reynolds bid $36,350, including the gravel. The selectmen awarded the bid to Reynolds at their meeting July 21.
The selectmen awarded other roadwork and the mowing of the town hall and town office lawns to G&D Cromwell Inc. for $1,400, the same price the town paid last year to a different contractor.
G&D Cromwell Inc. representatives also signed a new snowplow contract during the meeting.
The town received two bids for a three-year snowplowing contract, a $300,000 bid from G&D Cromwell Inc. and a $300,981 bid from Steven Reno Excavating. The selectmen awarded the bid to G&D Cromwell Inc. The town will pay the contractor $100,000 each year of the contract.
Town hall committee to seek painting bids
The selectmen authorized Westport Island Town Hall Committee Chairman William Cooney to solicit bids to have the front and back of the town hall painted. Cooney also reported that the committee is looking to have some windows replaced at the town hall.
Potential violation resolved
Code Enforcement Officer Gary Richardson had advised the selectmen at their meeting July 7 about a complaint of a potential violation regarding a shed being too close to the abutting property.
The property on which the shed is located was recently sold and the new owner was contacted by the code enforcement officer and has determined he will remove the shed to resolve any potential violation.
Harbor committee appointments
Westport Island has an opening on its harbor committee. Selectman Ross Norton volunteered to serve on the committee at the last selectmen’s meeting. Selectman George Richardson suggested that they get a legal opinion from Maine Municipal Association before making the appointment.
According to the opinion from the association, a selectmen should not serve on a town committee, therefore, Ross will not be appointed to the harbor committee.
Cemetery committee report
Cooney, also a member of the town cemetery committee, told the selectmen he wanted to publicly thank G&D Cromwell Inc. and E. Davies Allan for their time and material donated to work on the cemeteries.
G&D Cromwell Inc. donated gravel to fill in some sunken gravesites, and Allan donated equipment and time to do maintenance on the cemeteries.
Accounting to this year’s town report, the cemetery committee purchased flag holders for veterans’ gravesites. The markers are specific to the war in which the veteran served.
Approximately 50 flags are placed on veterans’ gravesites each year on the island, honoring veterans from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War.
A special thank you
Selectman George Richardson, recently diagnosed with bone cancer, extended a special thank you at the close of the selectmen’s meeting: “I want to thank all the folks that have sent me cards due to my illness, as well as all the folks that have called me and stopped to chat with me. Thank you all so much. I will move forward with my treatment.”
Next meeting
The next selectmen’s meeting will be held Monday, Aug. 4, at 7 p.m.
