LIVERMORE — Selectpersons voted Tuesday night, March 29, to hold a special in-person meeting April 12 to consider purchase of a fire truck.

The 6 p.m. meeting will be at Spruce Mountain Primary School on the Gibbs Mill Road. The public hearing required for the annual town meeting to be held by referendum vote April 26 will also be held then, followed by the regular Board of Selectpersons meeting.

A town meeting isn’t required for the lease purchase agreement for the truck but several board members felt they would like to get the legislative body’s seal of approval, Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller said.

There is a pitfall to holding a special town meeting, Miller said. If the purchase is voted down, another special town meeting would be needed, he noted. “That gets a little dicey, that is a concern that was raised by the town attorney,” he added.

Calls were for fires when Fire Chief Donald Castonguay first started, now they are for accidents, medical, everything, Castonguay said. “We’re trying to get one truck to carry everything,” he noted. “I can’t build a station any bigger so we had to go with a custom cab which allows you to have more room for the truck. We’re going to put our rescue tools and everything on that one truck.”

The committee has worked hard to determine what is needed, Castonguay said,

“There are no special things on it, just a basic truck,” he noted. “The price is crazy. We bought the other one for $200,000 in 2003. It’s gone up quite a bit more than that.”

Two bids, basically for the same amount of money were received, Castonguay said.

“The truck we want to get is a Pierce, they fix it right on Minot Avenue in Auburn so that’s a plus for us,” he noted. “The numbers come in at a little over $600,000.

“If we pay it all when we order it, they’ll take off $18,000 and some change,” he said. “They are going to allow us $20,000 for [Engine 1]. We’ve got $200,000 already, got $100,000 more at vote in April.

“It won’t make the taxes go up anymore on our end,” Castonguay added.

Payments would be $132,000 annually with a three year agreement, Selectperson Brett Deyling said.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to see you go with $50,000 for 10 years because debt is destructive,” Budget Committee member Warren Forbes said. “I would rather see the $100,000 even if you have to add a little more.

“We’ve been putting $100,000 away, we knew we needed [the truck],” he noted.

“I was hoping to go a few more years but we’ve had some issues with [Engine 1] this year, it’s starting to scare us,” Castonguay said. When asked what truck would need replacing next, he said the forestry truck is not doing good but a used chassis can be put on it.

“One of the reasons that we’re asking for the special town meeting is because Pierce will have a seven to 10% increase May 1,” Selectperson and firefighter Scott Richmond said. “That’s $60,000 plus.”

If the price goes higher, a downgrade might happen, he stressed. “We [would] not be getting a truck that will serve the community, we get called for everything,” Richmond added. “This truck will ensure us we can. I know it’s a lot of money.”

“You are short-handed too,” Selectperson Mark Chretien said.

“We can usually always get one driver, two is hard,” Richmond said. “That’s not just Livermore. We are fortunate, we have a good roster, everyone is active. I work on the hill [at Vortex], they let me go during the day. There’s not a lot of help during the day. Everybody is short.”

It is either buy a truck or have a full-time department, Castonguay said.

“We are for it, we need [the truck],” Budget Committee member Brenda Merrill said.

“I am not against it,” Forbes said. “I think the whole budget committee was in favor of putting that money away. The way inflation is going I think it is the right thing to do.

“I trust Don, he’s done a good job with that fire department all these years,” he added.

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