County to buy cruisers from Augusta dealership

A Bangor car dealership that was awarded the bid to provide a fleet of police cars for the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department was unable to obtain the vehicles and had to withdraw its offer.

Bean & Conquest was the low bidder last week to sell the county six Chevrolet Caprices. The company had quoted a price of $12,155 for each of four cars equipped with a patrol package and $12,118 for each of two detectives’ cars.

The County Commissioners this week awarded the bid to Bill Martin Inc. of Augusta for six Chevrolet Caprices at a cost of $12,384 apiece. The only other dealer in the running was Bangor Ford, which submitted a bid only for the detectives’ cars, according to County Clerk Kathy Walker.

Bean & Conquest notified the county in a letter this week that it would be unable to deliver. The company had closed down the model year in the two weeks between the submission and the awarding of the bid, and the dealership was unable to find the vehicles in other dealers’ stock.