Capping a sometimes contentious issue in Alna, voters at the annual town meeting March 21 agreed to a three-year plowing deal with Hagar Enterprises of Damariscotta.

“The town of Alna should hold its head high for ... being a place that conducts business with integrity, honesty and faith in their process,” the firm’s co-owner Seth Hagar writes in an email response Monday to the Wiscasset Newspaper’s request for comment. The firm is looking forward to providing the best possible service and growing its relationship with the town, Hagar writes.

Some who turned out Saturday praised the firm’s work in one of the harshest winters they could recall; others took issue with the job the firm has done. But outgoing Third Selectman David Reingardt said the issue wasn’t quality of work, it was about keeping the deal selectmen awarded to Hagar and keeping the town’s word intact.

“To give up your town’s integrity I think is going to bite us in the behind for a long time,” Reingardt said.

Special town meeting voters last summer called for selectmen to make a deal instead with the town’s last plowing contractor, Hanley Construction; a Maine Municipal Association lawyer later told selectmen the vote was void because it veered too far from the question voters were asked.

Selectmen later learned that the Hagar Enterprises deal and other multi-year ones needed the town’s approval.

Some speakers Saturday called for selectmen to renegotiate the contract with Hagar Enterprises to include a bond in case the firm stopped plowing Alna’s roads; however, selectmen maintained the town saved money by not requiring a bond, and that, if the work stopped, so would the town’s payments.

Saturday’s vote in favor of the contract followed more than 20 minutes of debate. The two-hour meeting at the fire station drew 70 residents and approved spending or setting aside $684,317, town officials said.

By a large majority of raised hands, voters agreed to have the planning board or a selectmen-appointed committee work on possible rules for fireworks’ use in town. The question called for the work to be done in time for an ordinance to be considered at the 2016 annual  town meeting.

Paul Lazarus gathered signatures door to door to get the question before voters. “I had hoped it would pass, and it did,” he told reporters later.

Lazarus said fellow resident Fred Bowers’ comments about fireworks’ possible effects on nearby horses reinforced his own concerns about a lack of local rules.

Seventy-four other communities in Maine have them, he told voters. “I’m hoping that we become municipality number 75.”

Bowers, a farrier and horse owner, said horses are flight animals who can flee when fireworks go off nearby. He also recalled fireworks once rattling the windows of his home.

“It really was a wake-up call for me,” he said.

Resident Ralph Hilton spoke against the proposed work to draft an ordinance. The state already restricts fireworks use, he said.

“We try not to put a whole bunch of restrictions on this town .... When you start putting more ... you’re heading in the wrong direction,” he said.

Fire Chief Mike Trask said fireworks have not been causing trouble in Alna and that, if a problem occurred, it would be a matter for the State Fire Marshal’s Office and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department.

In other decisions, residents gave a $15,000 start to a reserve fund for work on North Old Sheepscot Road; raised Town Clerk and Tax Collector Amy Warner’s pay for the next year by $1,255; and approved $10,000 in hardware and software upgrades for the town office.

At one point Saturday, Bowers called on attendees to thank selectmen for their service.

“Whether you agree with them or not, they work hard,” he said. Voters stood and applauded the board.