Preston - Nine residents voted in favor of several items Thursday, with approval of a new bidding ordinance coming after a lengthy debate over the two-page document.

The ordinance replaces a 52-year-old policy that several town officials said was obsolete and too restrictive for modern bidding practices. The new ordinance allows the town to participate in state or regional bid procedures, saving money on bulk purchases. It also now expands the definition of professional services - such as engineers, architects or attorneys - to include professional firms.

Board of Finance member Andrew Bilodeau made several objections to the proposed ordinance, questioning at the start why it would take two pages of text to replace the old two-sentence ordinance that worked for five decades.

The main amendment to the new ordinance called for a bid advertisement to allow 14 calendar days for submissions, rather than 10 business days.

A second ordinance change approved after some debate Thursday expanded membership eligibility for the town Ethics Commission to allow members of other boards and commissions or town employees to serve. Currently, the commission has difficulty finding members with the previous restriction that Ethics Commission members could not be members of other commissions.

A provision in the new ordinance would require Ethics Commission members to recuse themselves if a complaint is filed involving other commissions on which they serve.

Much quicker approval was given to a request that Preston participate in the Connecticut Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE), a program run by the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority. The program offers loans to businesses and nonprofit entities, such as churches and YMCAs, to finance 100 percent of the cost of energy upgrade projects.

The loan payments, typically at 5 to 6 percent interest, are paid back through a method akin to a sewer assessment lien on the property. The energy assessment lien would be charged to the loan recipient and would appear on the tax bill, with the payment going to the town. The town tax collector then would send the payment to C-PACE.

Alex Kovtunenko, junior counsel for C-PACE, attended Thursday's meeting to explain details of the program. He said C-PACE would pay for computer software for the town tax collector to run the program. He said Town & Country Greenhouses has expressed interest in the program and is expected to close on the first C-PACE loan in the program within two months.

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday