FARMINGTON — The Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a bid of $288,000 for painting and sealing equipment at the sewer department.

Three bids for the specialized work were requested, Town Manager Richard Davis told the board. Only one, Copia Specialty Contractors Inc. of Brewer, submitted one, he said.

An amount of $200,000 was budgeted for the work on two oxidation ditches under the town’s Land and Property Improvements account, he said. The bid was $190,000 for the ditches.

A previous estimate for painting and sealing primary clarifiers was $75,000 each. The bid amount is now $98,000 each, Davis said.

Davis recommended the work be done on both ditches and one clarifier for a total of $288,000, because there is $533,489 available in the Land Property Improvements Reserve Account, he said.

“It’s been a priority for a while,” Davis said. “It was identified by the Department of Environmental Protection, so it should be done soon.”

In other business, the board considered bids for roadside ditching.

Last year, the board expressed interest in doing the ditching, even adding $10,000 to the budget for it. Two bids came in for 80 hours of work, one for $23,800 and the other $24,110, Davis said.

The board considered two options: rejecting the bids and re-bid the project for fewer hours or let the Public Works crew do the work and increase the budget for work next year.

The town could rent an excavator for $2,500 per week for three weeks, he said. But it would tie up two truck drivers and an operator for those three weeks.

The board decided to use the $10,000 already budgeted by renting an excavator for two weeks and using the rest for the department’s part-time workers.

The board also approved a bid of $6,904 to wire the town garage for a generator.

The bid was awarded to IEC Inc. of Strong and Farmington. The funds will be taken from the Public Works Reserve Account. 

The generator previously was used by the Recreation Department, Denis Castonguay, Public Works director, said.

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