FARMINGTON – Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday to approve putting a ladder truck out to bid, ending a summer of uncertainty about the fate of the vehicle.

Voters agreed to spend nearly $850,000 on a combination pumper-ladder truck earlier this year. Part of the plan was either selling or trading in the current ladder truck for at least $100,000.

Some towns, Livermore Falls among them, began making plans to secure the truck almost immediately. Livermore Falls residents voted to purchase the truck for $100,000 during their June town meeting.

But all the time, Farmington Fire Chief Terry Bell explained Tuesday, the truck was also being advertised – to no avail – on the Web site www.fentonfire.com.

The day he got the call from Livermore Falls that the town had agreed to purchase the truck, Bell said Tuesday, a representative of Fenton Fire also called with a much higher offer. A town wanted to purchase the truck for $130,000.

Even with Fenton Fire’s 7 percent commission, the number was much better for Farmington, Bell said. He brought the problem to selectmen, who voted to back off for a few months and then decide what to do.

Between early summer and Tuesday, Bell said he had received a couple more offers from towns around the country to purchase the truck for around $130,000. Bell, Farmington Town Manager Richard Davis and the selectmen discussed the benefits of putting the truck out to bid, which would probably garner the highest price. Even though Livermore Falls wants the truck, Chairman of the Board Mary Wright contended, Farmington has got to think of Farmington.

When they learned placing the truck to bid through Fenton Fire would only require the town to pay a 4 percent commission, but would allow the vehicle to be advertised nationwide, selectmen voted unanimously to advertise in Fenton and the Maine Townsman.