FARMINGTON — Fire Rescue Chief Terry Bell who was injured in a propane explosion Sept. 16, visited the Board of Selectmen meeting Tuesday night, saying, “Things are going good.”
“Every day is better than the one before,” he said. “It will probably be a while before I get back here.”
“We’re anxious for you to try out the new snowblower we just authorized,” Selectman Stephan Bunker.
Bell quipped, “I have experience with that.”
Selectmen earlier had approved purchasing a snowblower to use at the municipal building.
Acting Fire Rescue Chief Tim Hardy said when he went to dig out the snowblower he realized it was pretty well used up. It has been around for 17 to 18 years. Hardy found a Husqvarna ST327P snowblower for $1,699.95.
“We need a heavy duty-one, especially with the way snow comes off the roof,” he said. “It has a hydrostatic drive, it eliminates a lot of other issues as far as drive belts and drive discs.”
Town Manager Richard Davis said there was $9,551.76 in the municipal building reserve account.
The board also approved spending $4,640 from that reserve account to correct a problem with fuel supply to the building’s boilers.
Davis said the municipal building has two boilers, one large and one smaller one.
“They work in tandem to supply hot water and heat the building,” he said. “We have a 10,000 gallon underground tank.”
Three years ago in order to meet new code, improvements were made to the boilers. They were upsized.
“Since then, there have been problems,” Davis said, “especially when the tank level gets low because the tank is below the level of the boiler.
“It’s generally the larger boiler that is starved for fuel. It loses pressure in the pump that goes to the large boiler. It kicks out.
“When it doesn’t run all night, the temperature drops considerably. When that goes down it puts more pressure on the smaller boiler as it tries to heat the whole building. It adds wear and tear on the smaller boiler.”
Davis said the solution is to install a fuel reservoir pipe and transfer pump that will supply constant fuel to each boiler.
He said approving both would leave a balance of $3,211.51 in the reserve account. He proposed the account be replenished in the next budget.
In other business, the board awarded the financing bid for the new firetruck to Bangor Savings Bank, which submitted a fixed interest rate of 1.9%. Androscoggin Bank’s bid was for 3.05%, KeyBank, N.A. was 2.97% and TD Bank, N.A. was 2.95%.
Davis said he had approached eight banks. Over the 10-year life of the $500,000 loan the interest would total $52,250.57.
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