WILTON – The purchase of a used rescue truck for the Fire Department was approved Tuesday during a brief special town meeting.

A total of $6,500 has been raised to go toward the $15,000 cost for the 1998 rescue truck after Fire Chief Sonny Dunham told the board he had sold the F350 squad truck for $4,000 Tuesday just before the meeting. The amount also includes a $500 donation from Dennis and Linda Taylor. It was given in appreciation for the Fire Department’s efforts last summer when their garage was struck by lightning, they stated in a letter to the town manager and Board of Selectmen.

The rest will be taken from the town’s surplus account with the Fire Department expected to fund raise half of that amount and repay the town.

The department has started an effort to raise the money. Dunham told the board that a request for a donation from a firefighter’s Lewiston employer has been made. The employer has donated to several other community functions, he said.

Department members will also meet with Irv Faunce and Tom Saviello this week to discuss future fundraising activities. An informal committee including community and Fire Department members is being established to help raise the funds expected from the department.

“The Fire Department has done an outstanding job. They do a lot of training and have saved us thousands of dollars over the years. They should be given the proper equipment to do their job. The community should do the fundraising. It should be all of us,” resident Dennis Landry said.

No date has been set for the funds to be returned to surplus. A few residents and most of the Fire Department attended the 10-minute town meeting.

The Board of Selectmen then met and approved putting the Fire Department’s engine 5 up for sale for $7,000. If it doesn’t sell by this spring, it will be taken apart by town workers and sold as individual parts.

Police Chief Dennis Brown sought the board’s approval to hire Jedediah (Jed) Malcore of East Wilton as a full-time officer. Malcore has met the requirements to attend the Maine Criminal Justice Academy basic law enforcement program starting Jan. 21, Brown said.

He graduated from Toccoa Falls College in Georgia with a degree in youth ministries and a minor in Biblical studies. He met his wife, a Wilton resident, at the college. Malcore has worked as a certified detention officer in Georgia and most recently served as a youth minister in Pelham, N.H.

With Malcore’s hiring, the Wilton police roster still has one vacancy, Brown told the board. Along with himself, the department includes Lt. Richard Caton IV, Josh King, Blaine Rackliff and Malcore. The department also has part-time officers to help until Malcore completes the training and while Officer Rackliff attends the academy in August.

The board unanimously accepted the applicant who was not only chosen by Brown but by a citizens’ review board that was created this year to screen applicants.

Brown told the board he believes the community should choose the officers who will provide them with services.