FOREX NEW YORK COMPANIES

NORTH ANDOVER — The battle of the boards over energy saving continues.

While the Finance Committee did not take a formal vote on the issue Tuesday night, the advisory board is moving toward recommending that contracts of more than three years be approved by Town Meeting. The committee is particularly concerned about a proposed $4.3 million contract with Ameresco, a Framingham energy services firm,

Ameresco has said it will reduce the town's energy consumption and costs by making a host of improvements to buildings, including boiler replacements and more efficient lighting. The town would pay back the $4.3 million over 15 years and that bothers Finance Committee members.

The selectmen and School Committee, as well as Town Manager Andrew Maylor and Assistant Town Manager Raymond Santilli, support a pact with Ameresco.

Article 3 on the warrant for the June 12 Town Meeting authorizes the town manager and superintendent of schools to award contracts for more than three years if four selectmen or four School Committee members approve.

Finance Committee member Peter Besen proposed amending the article to require that such contracts be approved by Town Meeting.

"We don't want it to happen administratively," his colleague, Benjamin Osgood, said about the possibility of a contract with Ameresco being approved without voters' approval.

Thomas Dugan, presiding in the absence of Chairman Alan LeBovidge, said board members need to agree on the language of an amendment before moving forward with it.

"We don't have to make a decision tonight," Dugan said. The board invited Ameresco to send a representative to its meeting last night, but the company declined to do so, according to Dugan.

Dugan, Osgood, Matthew Remis and other Finance Committee members have said the board has not been given sufficient information about Ameresco to make an informed decision.