FARMINGTON — Selectmen Tuesday night, May 24, approved a $260,000 expenditure from the Public Works reserve account for the purchase of a new plow truck.

Public Works Director Philip Hutchins said O’Connor and Freightliner were the only two dealerships contacted that had a space allotted for future builds. Arrival is estimated as late October, he noted.

“The other dealerships I’ve contacted, it is a minimum of 24 months for delivery,” Hutchins said. “And that is not a guarantee.”

“O’Connor and Freightliner is not a guarantee right now,” shop manager Jeffrey Fitch said. Other towns are trying to get trucks too, each company has one spot to build a truck, not to say [Farmington] won’t get one, he added.

“By approving [the funds] it will allow us to approach them tomorrow,” Hutchins said. “Throughout the state of Maine I am sure other towns are approaching these [companies]. If funds are allowed . . . that allows us to get a first shot at a spot.”

Selectman Joshua Bell asked about the cost of the truck and if it would be fully outfitted.

The truck will be fully outfitted, the $260,000 is a high end estimate, Hutchins said. O’Connor’s estimate was $250,000 and Freightliner’s was $256,000, he added.

This truck will replace a 2003 Volvo that lacks a stainless steel bed. It will be stainless steel.

“The one we are replacing has the hopper that we had them put in,” Fitch said. “If we need to haul snow from downtown we can’t use it because we have the hopper in the back.”

Bell asked if there had been any luck finding vehicles from the federal government.

Police Chief Kenneth Charles is still looking, there has been no luck, Hutchins said.

“Everybody is looking now,” Selectman Chair Matthew Smith said.

In other business selectmen with one vote renewed innkeeper and lunch wagon permits for Mt. Blue Motel and Colonial Valley Motel owned by Rick Collins, Farmington Motel owned by 489 Farmington Falls LLC, Sandy River Dairy owned by Eric Johnson, The Ugly Dumpling owned by Lou Sarofeen, The Outpost owned by Brian Bates and The White Fox owned by Nico Regas plus a new lunch wagon permit for The Frosty Paw owned by Mary Hastings.

Prior to the vote Smith said he wasn’t sure The Outpost was actually a lunch wagon. “They are building a ton of buildings over there, there is quite the little infrastructure going in,” he noted. “I think maybe in the future we need to look at this just to see what it falls under.”

Selectman Scott Landry asked if any taxes were being paid on the outbuildings.

“That I don’t know, something to follow up on,” Smith said.

Selectman Stephan Bunker said it would be good to have Code Enforcement look at it, see if the definitions hold up, if there is a different application that should be used.

“I am happy he is being successful,” Smith said. “I want him to fall in the right category.”

Hastings said she plans to start a family ice cream business that would serve the local area, be at ball games and drive around the downtown area. Pre-packaged frozen ice cream treats will be sold.

“We won’t be doing true ice cream,” she said. “Things you would have bought off an ice cream truck when you were a kid. We are going for classic. We have the music, all the old fashioned treats we can find.”

Costs will be kept very cheap so if at parades, a family of five can get ice cream for five bucks, Hastings said.

“Are you going to have a ding-a-ling bell on it so people in the neighborhood will know you are coming,” Landry asked.

“We are hoping to do the chime music,” Hastings said. “The ice cream truck I grew up with in my neighborhood, you could hear them coming before you would see them. That kind of “Pop Goes the Weasel” tune, that’s what we are looking for.”

Comments are not available on this story.