The opening of bids for a lawn service contract Thursday evening left Watson Township Supervisor Pam Brown in an awkward position in which she had to abstain from voting twice.

One of the bidders was her son, Brian, from B & B Mowing, whose $9,800 bid was tied for the lowest of three submitted. The other $9,800 bid was from M.W. Moore & Sons. But the Township Board voted down Treasurer Sue Jones’ motion to hire Brown’s company and instead went with Dave Kok and DK Landscape Management for $9,835.

Trustee Rod Zeinstra explained, “Last year (with Brown) we were up against a conflict. It put a lot of stress on us and on Brian.”

Kok has served the township before as cemetery sexton, a position that remains vacant now in the wake of the resignation last month of John Andrysiak for health reasons.

All of the bidders bid on mowing between 26 and 28 times at the township hall and Hicks and Miner cemeteries.

Brown told the board that besides trimming around the headstones in the cemeteries, he would restore headstones that had been knocked down and repair those that were broken.

Trustee Chuck Andrysiak said he preferred to do business with a company that had done the work before, which would include B & B and DK Landscape.

Zeinstra, Andrysiak and Clerk Kellie Morris all voted for DK Landscape, despite the added cost of $35.