A proposal to fund the purchase of a new firetruck goes to Wayne residents at a special town meeting Tuesday.

Voters will be asked to authorize the Wayne Selectboard to spend up to $50,000 from the town’s undesignated fund balance account in combination with $300,000 already saved up in a reserve fund to buy a firetruck.

The truck would replace a 1979 pumper truck which has been out of service for about a year, because its brakes don’t work and its water tank has rust, said Town Manager Aaron Chrostowsky. The new truck would be four-wheel drive and lighter and smaller than the town’s other pumper trucks.

“So it will be able to go down narrower, unplowed camp roads, places like that,” Chrostowsky said of the proposed new truck. “It carries less water than the other class A pumper trucks. But it will have a compressed air foam system, which increases its fire suppression capabilities. We have another truck that is a 1976. So we have an aging fleet, and this is a good opportunity to begin replacing it.”

Chrostowsky said the new truck will also have a device on top of it that will allow firefighters to shoot water or foam from the truck onto a fire.

Chrostowsky said the town saved up the $300,000 in the reserve account over the last several years to go toward the purchase of a new firetruck.

Advertisement

He said there will be no impact on the property tax rate, because the $350,000 would come from the town’s undesignated fund balance account and the truck reserve account.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the gymnasium at Wayne Elementary School.

Chrostowsky said the town has about $1 million in its undesignated fund balance account, an account generally made up of funds unspent in previous years and reserved for emergency expenditures, which leaves the town in good shape financially even if voters approve taking the $50,000 for the firetruck from the account.

Chrostowsky said the proposal is coming up now at a special town meeting, not as part of the annual Town Meeting, because firefighters have been looking around to find a good deal on the right truck, and now that they’ve found something that meets the town’s requirements and with the older truck out of service, they didn’t want to wait six months to take action.

Fire Chief Bruce Mercier, in a letter he wrote to citizens with the deputy and assistant fire chiefs, said they recognize there has been an increase in the number of year-round homes located on gravel camp roads and long driveways, and the new truck was designed to both replace the older truck and provide better access to such homes than larger trucks can provide.

More information about the proposal is online at the town’s website at www.waynemaine.org.

Advertisement

Chrostowsky said the new truck, if voters approve of the proposal Tuesday, will take about six months to be built.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.