OXFORD — Selectmen on Thursday declined a bidder’s request to toss out pumper truck bids from a competing company for not following the specifications.

Instead, the board opted to allow the Fire Department to continue reviewing all bids for the new equipment.

Town Manager Derik Goodine told the board that three bids were submitted: E-One for $449,481; Pierce for $527,441; and Rosenbauer America for $457,200.

Fire Chief Wayne Jones said he and the Fire Truck Committee have been reviewing the bids since they were opened earlier in the week.

“Pierce is asking that the E-One (bid) be thrown out because (it) didn’t follow the basic rules in the specifications,” he said. E-One did not fill out the yes or no spec sheet as the other two vendors did, he said.

“E-One did not follow that 100 percent, I would say. I spent a lot of time last night trying to chase down E-One’s specifications,” Jones said.

Selectman Peter Laverdiere clarified that the bid information submitted by E-One was usable, just harder to review than the other bidders.

“As soon as you get into E-One’s, you will see it is more difficult without the checklist,” Goodine said. “You have to flip back and forth. It’s not fun.”

Chief Jones spoke to the town’s attorney about the situation. He said she told him there isn’t any state law that addresses the issue, nor is she aware of any other case law that would apply to Pierce’s request.

“One of the issues that you have is both Pierce and E-One build an aluminum chassis fire apparatus,” Jones said. “The way they construct it is two different designs. It is hard to write a specification to keep it open to encourage people to bid, but at the same time (get) the quality you’re looking for.”

That is why he feels the yes and no checklist is important, he said. 

“Either vendor would give you a very, very good product,” Jones added.

The fire chief asked selectmen what they wanted to do.

“I guess my suggestion would be that the committee continue their work reviewing all the bids and do whatever is in the best interest of the town of Oxford,” Selectman and former Oxford Fire Chief Scott Hunter said.

“I would agree,” board Chairman Scott Owens said. “We asked the committee when the bids came in and the fire chief to go over them. We were asked to throw out E-One’s bid and I don’t think that is in the best interest of the town at this time.”

Owens requested the committee and Jones submit their recommendation for the pumper truck at the next selectmen meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21.

In other news, selectmen:

• Held a public hearing — there was no public comment — and approved a mass-gathering permit for the Oxford County Agricultural Society for the Oxford County Fair;

• Approved language changes to the Personnel Policy from “divorce and legal separation” to “loss and coverage due to divorce and legal separation;”

• Appointed Dana Dillingham to the Budget Committee, who noted his wife, Kathleen Dillingham, also serves on the committee;

• Appointed Dana Dillingham as an alternate to the Planning Board;

• Approved Goodine to run for a seat on the Maine Municipal Association Legislative Policy Committee, because no one from the district opted to run;

• Asked Goodine to draw up additional wording for the Solid Waste Ordinance to deal with haulers bringing in waste and recyclables from neighboring towns to the Transfer Station for presentation at the July 21 meeting; and

• Were informed by Goodine that he would soon convene a meeting of the Thompson Lake Dam Committee, as requested by Casco and Otisfield officials, because a meeting has not happened in a while.

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