LIVERMORE FALLS — RSU 73 directors voted Thursday to buy a used pickup truck for $6,800 to do cleanup plowing.
Money for the 2000 Ford F250 with cap will come out of the equipment line of the transportation budget. The truck will be bought from state surplus. It has 105,000 miles on it and is in good condition, Superintendent Bob Wall said. It will be fitted with a plow.
The truck replaces one the Jay School Department bought from the Jay Sewer Department and eventually took off the road due to rust.
The other pickup truck at the Jay school campus is also on its last legs, Wall said.
The town of Jay will no longer plow the Jay campus due to the school system becoming a separate entity from the town when it consolidated with RSU 36 on July 1.
Snow plowing and removal will be contracted, so it would be good to have a truck with a plow to do cleanup, Wall said.
Some board members debated the need for a truck since there is a pickup truck and a larger truck on the school grounds in Livermore Falls. They questioned why they couldn’t share the existing trucks and wanted more detailed information about what it would be used for.
Wall said the trucks serve multiple purposes. The pickup truck is also used to get supplies, move chairs and other chores, school employees said.
Director Dan DiPompo of Jay said the truck is needed and the price is good. There should be a truck with a plow on it at the Jay campus, he said. There could be times the contractor won’t be able to come back right away if it snowing, DiPompo said.
“It’s really not a lot of money,” DiPompo said.
One director asked Brenda Brochu, owner of Bailey Brothers dealership, which has the contract for maintenance on school vehicles, if she knew how many trucks the system had.
She said for the size properties the district has, “you are light on trucks. You need a truck with a plow on it,”
However, she said, should would like to see such purchases in the future go out to bid whether it is new or used.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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