Chief Ronald Kanterman proposed to the Board of Selectmen at its last meeting in February that the department should refurbish its aging ladder/rescue truck, built in 2004, rather than replace it with a new one.
A new one would cost $1.3 million, Kanterman said. A refurbishing job by the manufacturer, Pierce, based in Wisconsin, would be $350,000.
“We could save a lot of money,” Kanterman said.
“We could refurbish the ladder rescue truck and get another eight or nine years out of it,” he said.
The capital expense request for the refurbishing job is not imminent. Rather, the chief plans to ask for the money in 2021, for the 2022 fiscal year.
“We told them now because we don’t want it to be a surprise,” the chief said the next day at his office.
He credited the department’s new mechanic, Rick Petrizzi, who joined the department last year, for the idea of refurbishing rather than buying new. Petrizzi has thoroughly examined the 41-foot, 66,000-pound Pierce Dash, which has a 105-foot ladder attached to the back, and determined that the 500-horsepower diesel engine and transmission are good to go for another few years, to make it to 2022.