Construction on a new $1.8 million town garage began Tuesday when Littlefield Bros. Construction started digging the foundation after a little more than a year of discussion and planning.

The start of construction means the garage should be completed by the Nov. 30 deadline written in the contract between Buxton and Littlefield Bros. Construction, Board of Selectmen Chairwoman Jean Harmon said.

“Hopefully, it can be done sooner than that,” Harmon said.

A final cost for the garage, which will be located at a 169-acre complex that now includes the town hall, police station, transfer station and salt shed, has not been determined yet, but the board said it believes the final cost will be within the $1.8 million budget.

The town chose to bid out several phases of the project allowing different companies to build the water supply well, clear the lot and build the roadway into the site to save money, which engineering firm DeLucca-Hoffman supports.

In an Aug. 6 letter to Selectman Dan Collomy, the engineering firm estimated the town will save nearly 8 percent when the site is bid separate from the building, which Littlefield Bros. Construction will build.

“Our estimate of the savings realized by using this procedure is over $30,000,” the letter stated. “We are seeing this being done on most of our projects and the State Department of Education has been increasingly allowing it on school projects.”

Planning Board Chairman Keith Emery contends that the town will not save money with separate bids, saying he wished the town followed the Buxton School Board’s lead when it selected one general contractor for the entire project for the new Elementary School in Buxton Center.

“It makes more sense to use one contractor because the town knows who is responsible, and it saves money,” Emery said. “It would’ve been in the best interest of the town if they had done it that way.”

Collomy, who chairs a town committee proposing the garage, said he disagrees.

“I know that if I was a general contractor and I subbed you to pour concrete for me you’re going to give me a price and I’m the sub and I’m going to mark it up and charge the customer,” Collomy said. “Doing it this way, there’s no markup on these subs.”

DeLucca Hoffman has scheduled a progress meeting for 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 20, to discuss the building and the construction process.

The garage will replace the present one on Haines Meadow Road in Buxton Center. It will have 10 truck bays with entrance and exits at both ends of each bay.

A an excavator digs out the foundation on Tuesday for the new Buxton Town Garage located adjacent to Town Hall on 185 Portland Road.