PARIS — Paris selectmen approved a bid Monday to purchase a new tanker truck for the Fire Department.
The board unanimously agreed to accept a bid from Greenwood Emergency Vehicles of North Attleboro, Mass., for an International 7600 truck. The company beat five other vendors with a bid of $221,760.
The board also approved a transfer of $16,691 from the Fire Department’s operational account to a capital account, and approved the full $221,000 expenditure for the purchase. Much of the money will come from a grant awarded to the town by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Chief Brad Frost of the Fire Department said he applied for the grant last year due to frequent repairs on the old tanker, which consisted of a donated CN Brown oil tank mounted on a 1985 Mack chassis. Since water weighs more than oil, the truck was frequently overloaded and finally put out of commission after firefighters found a significant leak and damage to the chassis. At a special town meeting in January, voters approved $38,525 to purchase a new tank, and the tank cost was removed from the bids offered by the vendors.
Frost said several of the vehicles offered did not meet the requirements he was seeking. He said the tanker needed to have the engine power to handle the hills in the area while fully loaded, and also needed a small pump to allow the truck to fill up at a water body without using the crew of another engine. A bid for a Freightliner truck came in at $4,269 cheaper than the International truck, but was turned down due to an emissions system requiring more maintenance.
Town Manager Phil Tarr said $43,907 was allocated for the original repair project and that $32,923 has been used, mostly going toward the new tank. The FEMA grant was for $190,000, and the original cost estimate for the truck was $222,675. Tarr said that with the grant, money left over from the original project, and $5,000 budgeted from the 2011 capital account, a $16,691 deficit remained to pay for the new truck.
Tarr said that the deficit is less since Frost was able to negotiate a lower price, but that the board should approve the original amount to be safe. Frost said the old chassis may be sold to further defray costs.
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