Turf treatment bid in

SCARBOROUGH — While members of Citizens for a Green Scarborough are trumpeting a turf maintenance bid opened Friday as proof that organic solutions can save money, Town Manager Tom Hall says to hold the phone.

On Friday, Community Services Director Bruce Gulifer opened three bids received for field treatment services this year, ranging from $22,845 to $35,201 – the latter submitted by the town’s current contractor, Sports Fields Inc.

Within minutes, a member of the citizens group, Marla Zando, circulated an email to her peers calling the bids “a huge savings for the town” and proof that the cost of organic treatments had been wildly overestimated during last year’s fight to pass an anti-chemical policy. That policy was adopted in September and survived challenge last week by Councilor Richard Sullivan, who has called organic treatments too costly for the taxpayer when promoted as the only option.

Both Hall and Gulifer have publicly backed that assessment, citing projected cost hikes under the new policy of 28 percent, or $11,000 more than the current $75,000 annual costs.

But Hall said not to read too much into the new numbers. The bid was only for “weed and feed” operations, he said, and do not include all types of work undertaken by Sport Fields for its previous $75,000 fee.

“It’s not at all apples to apples,” Hall said Friday.

Hall also said the contract may not necessarily go to the lowest bidder. The bid packages, drafted with input from Zando and fellow citizens group member Mark Follansbee, asked for “narratives about each vendors philosophical approach” to pest control. That, Hall said, will influence the bid award as much as bottom-dollar price.

Scarborough’s new pesticide policy could well force the town to take the highest bid, said Hall.

Still, citizens group member Eddie Woodin said the bid is a victory, considering that turf management has not been put out to bid “in more than 10 years.”

“All of the bidders included organic treatments, so we don’t care, really, who gets it,” said Woodin. “We’re just happy that by pushing for this we were able to save the town a significant sum of money.”

Hall said he could not explain when the contract, which has run as high as $90,000, has not been put out to bid in the last decade.