Snow Plowing & Sanding Contracting - big bucks

Last week we had a humdinger of a snow storm. Fortunately we've only had three or four measurable storms so far this year. Nothing like last year. Thank you, God. And gas prices are slightly less than half of what they were a year ago for which we can also be thankful.

But still, many people should still have ruffled feathers re: the $90 thousand plus dollar per year guaranteed (snow or not) contract our civic minded Selectmen awarded to the so-called sole bidder to plow fewer than twelve miles in this small town. You can imagine my shock - dismay perhaps - to be told it was not that same contractor plowing out the Town Office last week but someone from the Town of Holden(!). It would be interesting to see if the Town Office wasn't included in the contract for the $90K - or, if it was, did "our" contractor pay whoever it was from Holden? Our tax dollars at work.

Another bit of information from sources around town: Seems all the plowing and sanding businesses in the area buy their sand from the same source, including the contractor for Eddington - at the price of $2-3 dollars per yard. With the exception of Eddington's contractor, these contractors are charging their towns $7.00 per yard (a $5.00 mark-up). But Eddington's contractor is charging Eddington $15.00 a yard for the sand - a $12.00 per yard mark-up. Nice profit there on top of the improved profit because of the lower gasoline costs.

As I understood it last year, via one of Eddington's Selectmen, Eddington had to buy their sand through the contractor. Of course, that Selectman worked for the contractor at the time. But he didn't see any conflict of interest in advocating for that contractor at the time. It wasn't until there was a public exposure and noise made that it WAS a conflict of interest that the Selectman in question "chose" to withdraw from the final vote - whether to make it a one year contract with subsequent review (which the majority of attendees at the Town Meeting voiced when their veto of the amount of money for the contract was retaliated by the Selectmen) or to sign for a three year contract. As I recall, the remaining members went ahead and awarded the three year contract.

It is always good to have friends and buddies in position to take care of business, isn't it. Even at taxpayers expense.

Too bad David Aubaugh didn't win one of the Selectmen seats last fall. He believed contract bids should be at least solicited from local businesses and that the town buy its own sand (which would certainly have saved us money THIS winter).

BTW - my source says the current contractor has been telling other companies it only takes him 1.5 hours to do the roads he needs to cover in Eddington. Even if the contractor only has to do them three or four times in a bad storm, it's certainly good money he's making this year. When I asked my source why he didn't submit a bid last year, the response was, with the set-up on the Selectmen they didn't think they'd get a fair chance so why waste the time trying.

Considering my recent experiences, I don't think they're wrong.