Alna selectmen’s sale of a fire truck had the ending they had first hoped for — to see the truck go a town that could really use one on the cheap. It just took a surprise, an understanding Westbrook man, and a re-vote Tuesday night, to get there.

On Dec. 2, the board had accepted Paul Cloutier’s $4,300 bid, the highest of 10 unsealed that night. No bidders attended, and selectmen said they couldn’t tell from the bids who, if anyone, intended to give the 1986 GMC to a fire department.

In a telephone interview after the meeting, Cloutier, of Westbrook, said he might put a stake body on the truck and use it around the yard. “Nothing very exciting,” he said about his plans for the truck he found on Craigslist.

The truck’s low mileage led him to bid on it, Cloutier said.

Alna’s new, nearly $300,000 fire truck arrived in June. It replaced the GMC.

Before selectmen opened the bids Dec. 2, First Selectman David Abbott announced that he didn’t expect the board to make a decision that night. Selectmen thought they might see bids from fire departments, possibly in Washington County, where another piece of fire department equipment went earlier this year. The defibrillator, no longer needed after the First Responders program ended, went to Pleasant River Ambulance Service.

Third Selectman Doug Baston had informed Washington County that the GMC was up for bid.

Selectmen have said they were open to passing up the highest bid if a lower one came from a Washington County fire department, or any other that needed a fire truck. But, except for Starks Fire Chief Steve Rackliff, who bid $1,251, no bidders cited ties to fire departments. And selectmen said they couldn’t tell from Rackliff’s bid if he wanted the truck for his local department or for his own use.

“It’s not like he bent over backwards to explain what he was doing with it,” Abbott said as the board deliberated. Third Selectman Doug Baston, taking part via the town office’s cordless phone, asked if the board should call Rackliff to find out. But Baston and the rest of the board later decided to accept Cloutier’s bid over Rackliff’s and the others, which ranged from $403 to a $3,858 one from Ron’s Toy Shop in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“It doesn’t look to me like there’s a lot to talk over,” Abbott said in support of awarding the bid that night, after all. If a bid had come in with a letter from a needy fire department, that would have been something to mull, he said.

“Go with the highest bidder,” Second Selectman Melissa Spinney said.

Baston added his support, making it unanimous; however, he wasn’t sure he could vote by phone, he told fellow board members.

“There are plenty of witnesses,” Abbott told him. Town Clerk Amy Warner said she would note Baston’s support.

In a telephone interview Dec. 3, Rackliff said that, had his bid won, he had planned to offer his department the truck as a donation. The department has a pumper truck; a former ambulance as a utility vehicle; and a recent boost in membership from three to 17. “So I thought we could use another truck,” he said. He’s been looking on Craigslist for a good deal, and will continue to.

“I was trying to buy that cheap,” Rackliff said about the Alna truck. “I figured ... if it worked out, it would be great; if not, we’ll try again somewhere else.”

The top bid Dec. 2 was higher than Fire Chief Mike Trask thought it might be, although the tires alone are worth more than that, Trask said.

A prior Craigslist ad resulted in another former Alna Fire Department truck, a 1972 Dodge Power Wagon, going for $10,071 to Sugarloaf Ambulance Rescue Vehicles. Ron Morin, the Wilton business’ owner, used the truck’s chassis on a replica of the rescue truck from the 1970s television show, “Emergency.” The sale money went to the Alna Fire Department’s nonprofit arm that had gotten the Power Wagon for the department.

The town handled the GMC truck’s sale and will receive the money from it because the town owned that truck, Trask said.

Voters will decide how to use the sale money, selectmen said. The question will likely go on the warrant for the March 2016 town meeting, members said.

However, thanks to a turn of events in the days that followed, the town will get $5,000 for the truck, from a Washington County fire department, rather than Cloutier’s $4,300.

On Monday, Dec. 6, the board called a special meeting. Town officials had learned that two more bids had arrived in time for the Dec. 2 opening, but didn’t make it to the town offic; the bidders sent them certified mail, at a time when no one was at the town office to take them, Abbott said.

Abbott started Tuesday night’s special meeting with a proposal to rescind the Dec 2 decision. Baston said he had talked to Cloutier beforehand. “He was a perfect gentleman ... a good guy,” and didn’t mind the board reconsidering the truck’s award, Baston said.

“Thank you, Paul Cloutier,” Town Clerk Amy Warner said at the other side of the board’s table.

The board unanimously took back its prior vote, then discussed the two additional bids — Robbinston Fire Department’s, $3,000 one and Perry Fire Department’s, for $5,000, the highest of all 12 bids.

Perry provides mutual aid to a half dozen towns, including Robbinston, Perry Fire Chief Paula Frost writes in a letter containing the bid.

Two of Perry’s fire trucks have gone out of service at the same time, impacting service that includes a tool for freeing people from vehicles, Frost stated In the letter and a telephone interview later Tuesday night.

“This is ... what we had hoped for, for (the truck) to go to a department that didn’t have much,” Abbott said.

Selectmen picked Perry’s bid as the new winner of the GMC. Then, with the meeting still under way, Baston called Frost. “You want a fire truck,”  he asked. “Well, you got it.”

Interviewed later, Frost said she was very excited that the department is getting the Alna truck. “This really bails us out. I’m doing a happy dance.”