FARMINGTON — Franklin County commissioners voted Monday to buy three 2014 Ford Interceptor sports utility vehicles from Farmington Ford Mercury, pending the bid meets the sheriff’s specifications.

The Farmington business was the lowest bidder of three dealerships that submitted bids, Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr. said.

They obviously want the county’s business, he said.

“They undercut all the others bids by $12,000,” he said. “That’s incredible.” 

Farmington Ford Mercury’s bid was $60,401. Bailey Brothers Ford of Livermore Falls bid $71,089, and Quirk Ford of Augusta bid $72,876.

Nichols had presented commissioners with the bids that had been reviewed prior to the commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday.

“We always open the bids right here,” county Commissioner Fred Hardy of New Sharon said.

The practice of the Sheriff’s Department opening the sealed bids started with the past administration for the last couple of years, he said. Nichols became sheriff on Jan. 1.

“I don’t think it is right,” Hardy said. “This has been done this way before you came on,” Hardy told Nichols.

Commissioner Gary McGrane of Jay agreed. The bids need to come sealed to commissioners and be opened in public, he said.

For many years, the commissioners would open the cruiser bids in public and representatives of the Sheriff’s Department would review them to make sure they met specifications.

Nichols said he will make sure the bids come to the commissioners the next time.

There is $90,000 in the budget for new cruisers. Nichols said some of the remaining money will be used to outfit the vehicles as cruisers.

Commission Chairman Clyde Barker of Strong asked if any leftover money from that line could be carried over to next year’s budget.

Anything not spent after the budget balances out for that particular segment could be brought forward to commissioners to make a decision on carrying it over or letting it lapse into the county’s undesignated fund, McGrane said.

dperry@sunjournal.com