SKOWHEGAN -- Selectmen at a special meeting Tuesday night approved 3-2 the purchase of gravel that was used on the Rowe Road even though it came from the high bidder.

Board Chairman Joy Mase, who voted against acceptance, said although she understood the error was not intentional, it was time for the board to stop paying for mistakes that don't come before selectmen until after the extra cost has already materialized.

Most recently, extra, unanticipated costs have been cropping up at the Renaissance Center and in the traffic island downtown that have required the board to approve paying for a job after the fact.

"We're doing this a lot lately," Mase said. She said the board is forced to pay bills for items over which they had no say, with all departments, not just the highway department .

"One of these days the board is going to say 'Nope, we're not going to do it,'" Mase said.

Town Manager John Doucette said he had to bring the issue before the board because selectmen last week had a had a problem with his making a decision without their knowledge on a purchase that went beyond the town's $5,000 purchasing policy limit.

Road Commissioner Gregory Dore admitted the mistake was his, saying that he misread the price lists and purchased the gravel from local vendor Laney's Construction thinking it was the lowest bid.

Laney's Construction price list was $21 per cubic yard loaded; $24 delivered to the highway department.

Merle Lloyd & Sons of Anson had the lower price list of $16.75 loaded, $20.75 delivered.

Dore said the gravel already had been used on the road project and that work on the Rowe Road had taken a lot more stone than expected. The total bill for three road projects done this summer was $5,340, using the April quotes list he had misread.

Dore said he had approached Laney's about making a better offer because of the mistake and that Laney's had reduced its price per cubic yard loaded to $17.75. That reduced the total cost to $4,560, $780 less than the original bid. He that was a $1-dollar-a-yard difference than Lloyd's.

Mase said there was a lesson to be learned. She said she would like every project -- from sewer, to highway, to solid waste -- to be estimated up front for labor, equipment and materials. Then she said she would like every project tracked.

"It's project accounting and it's got to be done," she said. "The tail has been wagging the dog here."

Selectman Cyprien Johnson also voted no. Selectmen Betty Austin, Donald Lowe and Davida Barter, who is Dore's sister, voted to approve the funding.