On Monday, Aug. 14 Westport Island selectmen signed a three-year contract totaling $300,000 with G & D Cromwell, Inc. to provide snow plowing services. The contract calls for payments of $100,000 per year. The amount for the current year was approved by town voters at their annual meeting June 25 and represents 17 percent of the town’s total annual budget.

Co-owner Garry Cromwell also serves as the town’s road commissioner. Dennis Cromwell, president of G & D Cromwell, provided a glimpse of the plowing challenges faced by the crews. “We generally have three trucks out, but in a blizzard, we can have as many as seven or eight,” he told the Wiscasset Newspaper in a telephone interview. “We’re plowing during a storm and after the last flake falls it can be four to six hours before it’s all cleaned.”

The business has plowed the 24.45 miles of town roads, including the seven-mile main road which is owned by the state, for the past 20 years. For the past nine years, the company has not raised its price for the work. “We’ve been able to do this, because the price of fuel is stable,” Cromwell said.

“We want to thank the town and the selectmen for the new sand and salt shed,” he added. Before this, loading sand and salt on the trucks was done outside during the worst of winter weather. The material would freeze and the crews would have to stand for hours in freezing rain, snow and ice. “We appreciate what the town has done so we can work in a protected area.”  

In other business, William Dale, the attorney representing the town in a lawsuit involving property owned by Leslie Lilly, informed the town via email that Justice Billings had not yet decided the various motions. The dates of October 5-6 have been confirmed should the suit go to trial.

Jerry Bodmer, selectman and plumbing inspector, said he had received 18 investigation forms from inspectors for the state Department of Marine Resources, Bureau of Public Health who are currently inspecting waterfront properties on the island.  Not all the forms indicate violations but some will require followup by Bodmer on behalf of the town due to broken sewage systems.

Selectmen appointed Kyle DePietro to a one-year term as tree warden and appointed Ralph Jacobs to the cable television negotiating committee.