The truck, which publicly debuted at a Fire District meeting Thursday night, has already been put to work at a fire in Plymouth, said Onset Fire Chief Ray Goodwin. “It was already put to the test and it works great,” said Goodwin.

Goodwin thanked two captains, Jeff Dias and Howard Anderson, for their work in grant writing.

“It takes so much time to write a grant, to get the wording just so, and these two men have put in a lot of hours, unseen by everyone, making sure we get that money,” said the chief.

The fire department says the emergency vehicles will replace two older vehicles. 

The department says the they'll use the new vehicles to respond to more than 7,000 calls in the community during one year.

Ahead of the next City Council meeting, Old School Partners has submitted a proposal and plans for the property. Seven bed-and-breakfast-style rooms, along with an open event space, would be upstairs. And downstairs the group imagines a mixed use space with a tap house, pop-up vendor and also retail in the form of a Black Dog Salvage general store.

Although the two Holland fire board members, Bob Stupi and Jerome Pedretti, admitted the new aerial ladder truck was needed, they objected to how the purchase is to be financed.

They preferred the fire department lease with a possible option to buy the truck instead of requiring each fire board member municipalities fund a third of the purchase cost.

The cost of the new truck will be divided equally among the three member municipalities with each responsible for around $288,000.

On the "working" side of the station, the department now has a decontamination area for those returning from calls, more space in its apparatus bays, a storage room specifically for fire gear, a dedicated room for report writing, a workout and training room that could someday be converted into an apparatus bay, sleeping areas, locker rooms and a large commons and kitchen area for employees. Screens in the station show current weather, traffic and staffing conditions but then flash to a map showing the location of an emergency call when it comes in.