AMBROSE CLANCY PHOTO | Conor Trainor, right, and Oliver Mallon of Rhode Island’s Wright Equipment, told the Town Board Tuesday that their low bid for a Highway Department machine should have won the contract.

Two manufacturer’s representatives made a case before the Town Board Tuesday claiming they were unfairly shut out of a highway department contract.

Conor Trainor and Oliver Mallon of Wright Equipment of Rhode Island put in a bid last month on a machine that turns vegetative material into mulch and topsoil that can then be sold by the department to the public.  Wright’s bid was more than $30,000 under the offer of the firm that won the contract, Atomic Truck and Equipment of Nelliston, New York.

“We have something of better quality and it was tossed back,” Mr. Trainor told the board. “It doesn’t make any sense. The wrong decision has been made. How can you justify this to your taxpayers?”

Only two bids went out last month for the mulch-making machine, one to Atomic Truck, which makes a machine called the CEC Screening Plant that the department rented last summer. The other bid was to Wright Equipment, which makes a similar and less expensive screening plant called a McCloskey R105.

Although the CEC ‘s price is higher, at about $246,500, compared to the McCloskey, which comes in at $214.950, for Highway Superintendent Jay Card Jr., it was a no-brainer to choose the more expensive model.

No new equipment would be needed or infrastructure built for the CEC, which would be the case for the less expensive machine, plus the CEC was more fuel-efficient, Mr. Card said.

Mr. Trainor disputed the idea extra costs would have to be incurred by the department with the McCloskey. Not only was the McCloskey as good a machine as the CEC, Mr. Trainor argued, but the resale value of their screening plant was much better. Both he and Mr. Mallon argued that they had met all criteria for the bid, had the far better price, and still were not given a fair shake.

Mr. Card and two highway employees had travelled to Rhode Island to see the McCloskey in action but immediately were concerned about the size, complexity and efficiency of the machine, Mr. Card said.

Mr. Trainor said the department’s visit to Rhode Island was just to make the bidding process “look legal.”

Mr. Card had a measured, but spirited response, noting that the CEC, which had been leased by the department and proved easy to run, was a simpler machine, with less moving parts and was safer for highway employees. He added that the McCloskey had higher horsepower, which would require more fuel. More fuel efficient, the CEC would pay for itself in the long run.

Mr. Mallon disagreed, acknowledging that the “CEC is good to do what you want. But we can do it cheaper.”

After Mr. Mallon and Mr. Trainor left, the board discussed the contract with Mr. Card and agreed with him that the correct decision had been made.