SKOWHEGAN — Selectmen voted Wednesday against buying a street sweeper for $25,000 for spring cleanup and renting it out to the town of Madison to offset costs and repairs.

The vote was split 2-2, meaning the motion failed.

Selectwomen Darla Pickett and Betty Austin voted for the purchase, while Selectmen Don Skillings and Paul York voted against it. The board has four members after the departure of Newell Graf, who left to serve on the board of county commissioners.

Neither Skillings nor York offered a reason for voting to reject the deal.

Graf was in the audience Wednesday and suggested selectmen approve the 2004 sweeper purchase because “it makes sense and should cover the cost of maintenance.”

There was little discussion by selectmen with only Pickett raising questions about the purchase.

She wanted to know how many hours of work the HP Fairfield sweeper with a small John Deere motor had done, if the motor was in good shape, if it compared favorably to other models and if $25,000 was a good price for a used machine.

Jim Provost, a longtime employee of HP Fairfield, said the motor doesn’t work that hard because the hydraulics do most of the heavy lifting. HP Fairfield in past years has leased the sweeper to Skowhegan. The company no longer leases the sweeper, but agreed to sell the machine to Skowhegan.

Provost said the sweeper already has been serviced this year with some new parts and was in good shape.

Road Commissioner Gregory Dore said the plan was to pay for the sweeper in two installments — one payment from this year’s budget, the other from next year’s budget.

Officials agreed $25,000 was a good price for the machine.

The plan also called for leasing the machine to Madison for a week and a day at an annual cost of $4,500 this year and next year.

Dore said the combined costs over two years from Skowhegan’s normal payment of $8,600 and Madison’s $4,500 would pay for the purchase of the machine and Skowhegan would own it outright.

Tim Curtis, Madison interim town manager who was at the meeting Wednesday, confirmed that Madison selectmen had approved the rental agreement with Skowhegan.

Dore said he will begin the process Thursday morning of finding a company to sweep the streets of Skowhegan for the best price and expects to have an agreement by the end of the week. Work should get started by the end of the month, he said.

Doug Harlow — 612-2367

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Twitter: @Doug_Harlow