Haunted by the specter of the Penquis CAP program, the regional weatherization program now administered by the Eastern Maine Technical College still is trying to dispel the old program’s reputation for kickbacks and poor workmanship.

Quality work, better-trained crews, and scrupulous attention to the avoidance of any conflict of interest seems to be turning that reputation around.

“The contractors don’t even buy us a cup of coffee,” said Wes Williams, manager of EMTC’s Department of Energy Services, which runs the program. “There are no special deals cut up here … People have to do the work before they get paid.”

Williams said he had the opportunity to look at four or five of the improperly weatherized homes done under the Penquis CAP program and saw poorly installed materials.

The program manager said he also took his staff to the federal courthouse to attend one day of the trial of former Bangor Mayor Thomas F. Davis Jr., former Penquis weatherization supervisor, to emphasize the need for honesty and propriety in their work.

“That Penquis trial drove it home,” said Williams. “… We will crawl that 30 feet in the back attic with the spiders to do inspections.”

EMTC took over the weatherization program in October 1987 after Penquis CAP tried to keep it going, but shelved the program because of an increasing deficit. The college provides the program as a public service in the same way that the University of Maine provides public-service programs, as part of its mission, said Williams.

“We get the college name out there,” and some weatherization clients “are good candidates for technical education,” he said.

With an annual budget of about $600,000, the program uses seven subcontractors to weatherize 325 homes in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties at a cost of about $1,600 per home.

The contractors have received about 250 hours of training by the department staff to bring them up to the program’s standards, said Williams. They learn the latest in weatherization technology through one-on-one training and site inspections, he said.

Each home undergoes a thorough inspection before the job is signed off, and “the whole unit is totally reaudited,” assured the manager.

“Our contractors know we check 100 percent, and everything has to be there,” said Williams.