LIMESTONE, Maine — Officials remain hopeful that negotiations over a contract to renovate Massachusetts transit buses will soon be resolved, allowing 35 Maine Military Authority employees laid off in October to be called back to work.
The state-run Maine Military Authority’s $19 million contract to renovate 32 Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority buses was put on hold because of unanticipated cost overruns.
Maine Military Authority and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority representatives “are still trying to negotiate something, and it is taking longer than they had hoped,” Susan Faloon, spokeswoman for the Maine Emergency Management Agency, said Monday in an email. “No word yet on anyone going back to work.”
During a Dec. 7 meeting of the Loring Development Authority, which leases facilities to Maine Military Authority on the former Loring Air Force Base, Loring Development Authority President Carl Flora said he was hearing that the employees might be “back to work on the buses soon.”
But according to one Loring Development Authority board member, some of the workers might not want to return.
“I talked to a couple of those who are laid off, and by the way they talk, they will not go back,” said Miles Williams of Caribou. “Some are going to college, and there was one guy who had been working there for 18 years who said he won’t go back because he’s been through [layoffs] too many times. We were afraid that we could lose some pretty good personnel, but that’s one of the risks you take.”
“It certainly is,” added Flora. “It’s the downside of going through a layoff. People appreciate stability, and that’s something they have not had.”
According to the board president, 35 Maine Military Authority employees were laid off, and 35 remain.
Those who retained their jobs are focusing on two other projects while the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority contract is ironed out. The projects include end of life overhauls for eight retired buses that will be used for two fixed-route operators in Maine.
According to Flora, the Federal Transit Authority is monitoring this project closely and the result could lead to “formal recognition of an end of life overhaul program eligible for [Federal Transit Authority] funding.”
The other project involves overhauling landfill compactors and garbage trucks for a “major landfill operator.”
Maine Military Authority, which is run under the Maine Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, was formed in 1997 to offer military vehicle repair services at the industrial park of the former Loring Air Force Base. After the drawdown of troops from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, Maine Military Authority downsized and transitioned to servicing civilian vehicles
The contract with Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was Maine Military Authority’s first foray into major transit system buses, and Maine Military Authority was the sole bidder. Refurbishing was expected to add another six years to the typical 12-year lifespan of the diesel-electric public transit buses used for public transportation services in Greater Boston.
But the buses presented a number of challenges shortly after work began, said Brig. Gen. Douglas Farnham, Maine’s top military official, during a press conference in late September in Limestone.
Farnham said the cost overruns stemmed from “the complexity of the project, the condition of the incoming buses, some unexpected part variations and misunderstandings in the scope of work.” Other challenges have included the tight-turning nature of the highly maneuverable buses and their dual diesel-electric engines.
BDN writer Anthony Brino contributed to this report.