New $530,000 fire truck could come before voters Oct. 25

Sept. 29, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – Residents may take a vote during the Oct. 25 Special Town Meeting to fund a new $530,000 fire engine, less than a year after the town started utilizing its Quint fire truck apparatus.

Town Manager Stephen Crane spoke with Reminder Publications about a draft copy of the warrant, noting the fire truck would require Select Board approval before being placed on the warrant.

He said the Fire Department’s Fire Engine No. 2 is “failing as we speak.” The fire engine was purchased more than 25 years ago and would cost $530,000 to replace.

Crane acknowledged the town recently replaced Fire Engine No. 1 more than a year ago with a new Quint fire truck apparatus.

He explained Fire Engine No. 2 is approximately the same age as the fire truck that the Quint replaced.

Engine No. 2 is primarily used as a rescue vehicle and includes the jaws of life and struts to extract people from a vehicle in the event that it flips over, Crane said. That equipment can’t simply be taken off and put on another fire engine.

He added the fire engine requires a detailed certification process, which he believes the current Fire Engine No. 2 would be “barely passable” when it will be reviewed in December.

“When they mean end of use life … Engine No. 2 is really going through the very embodiment of that now,” Crane said. “The transmission, radiator, the pump – it’s just wearing out.”

It would take a year for the town to receive its new fire truck if residents approve funding, he noted.

“Even when you get the appropriation in hand and you sign the paperwork it’s like a year,” he added. “It took us a year to get the Quint. They just don’t roll off the line. They’re all custom made and [Fire Chief John Dearborn] has been looking at alternative analysis – if this thing were off the road today what we’d be able to do.”

Crane said Dearborn would present those alternatives during the Select Board’s Oct. 3 meeting alongside information about the proposed warrant article.

“It’s out of sequence to push for a vehicle like this at a fall Town Meeting, but because it takes so long to get one and … six months ago we didn’t think it would be as bad as it is. It’s really fallen apart in the last six months,” Crane said.

Another article that may be featured on the warrant, pending the Select Board’s approval, calls for funding continued design work on the new Adult Center project. However, the article is still a work in progress at this time, Crane said, adding the draft article has yet to include the amount it seeks to appropriate.

“The site analysis done by the Adult Center Building Committee was very thorough and will benefit from additional architecture and engineering services as we keep this important effort moving forward,” he added.

The Adult Center Building Committee previously recommended Bliss Park as the top site for the project and to fund the design work for $250,000. However, the Select Board has yet to take a vote on that recommendation.

When asked if the design work would focus on that site, Crane replied, “The way I have it drafted it is to do additional analysis at Bliss Park because that is the recommendation of the committee. The Select Board has not accepted that recommendation … It may not make it into the warrant as such.”

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