By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — Whether the current vehicle contract between the town of Limestone and Limestone’s two auto repair centers are working or not seems to depend on who’s answering the question; Scott Caldwell of Caldwell Auto LLC doesn’t think the contracts are working at all while James Cote of Cote Auto Repair Inc. thinks the arrangement could use a little fine tuning but is otherwise fine. The selectpeople will deliberate this evening as to whether the contracts should be continued or dismissed.
The current vehicle contract, approved in late 2009, was revamped at the time in the spirit of cost savings and fairness to ensure that the town was providing equal business to both entities — a project spearheaded by former selectperson Mary Morin, who resigned in May of 2010.
Selectpeople began discussing the effectiveness of the contracts during their last meeting, with Town Manager Donna Bernier openly admitting that she’d like to see the contract go away. Selectperson Chair Walt Elliott expressed that he believes that the new contract — which was anticipated to conserve funds — has actually cost the town more money.
Each town vehicle is equipped with a vehicle log, in which mechanics record work they’ve performed on the equipment; an issue the Selectpeople discussed when it comes to weighing costs between the two repair shops is that the logs generally don’t determine, for example, what type of oil or oil filter was used in an oil change — which could account for a hefty fluctuation in price.
Another speculated contract downfall is that all repairs over $500 need to be put out to bid, though it was stated by the selectpeople that there are numerous instances where repairs over $500 were done without following contract protocol.
The selectpeople are scheduled to discuss the status of the Vehicle Maintenance Contract during tonight’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building in Limestone.
