WILTON – Selectmen on Tuesday night discussed the Finance Committee’s recommendations for paying for a new firetruck with committee member Shannon Smith.

Smith told them that Finance Committee members recommended selectmen take “up to $250,000 from the town’s surplus account” for a new firetruck and then add money to the town’s capital expense account for future purchases.

“We’ve been using the Band-Aid approach” for too long, she said. Finance Committee members voted to ask Town Manager Peter Nielsen and other town department heads to recommend “an annual appointment of money to the capital expense reserve accounts, based on a 10-year projection.”

Selectman Rodney Hall agreed, saying that taking money out of the town’s surplus account only serves to deplete the money in the account and is not a solution to Wilton’s financial problems.

“We’ve spent more than we’ve taken in,” he said. “You aren’t going to go to that well forever and keep it up – so you rob Peter to pay Paul.”