Chris Cartwright
The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
(TNS)

Mar. 29—MARLBOROUGH — Residents approved a new fire truck; $100,000 for stormwater infrastructure planning, design and construction; and all other articles on the warrant at town meeting Tuesday.

Roughly 65 of the town’s 1,370 registered voters gathered at the Marlborough School for the hour-and-a-half meeting, presided over by Moderator Michael Briggs.

The meeting opened with residents approving $550,000 to buy a fire truck. No more than $400,000 of bonds or notes will be issued for the truck, with the remaining balance to be funded through a variety of sources. These include $75,000 from the Fire Equipment Capital Reserve Fund, $66,000 from various other funds and $9,000 from donations.

Fire Chief John Manning spoke before the vote, saying, “the price of fire trucks has become what can only be described as insanely crazy.” There were no comments or debate on the measure, and the ballot box remained open for an hour. The article passed 61-4.

Residents then approved the $2,578,963 operating budget by a voice vote. Town Administrator Ellen M. Smith detailed budget changes that resulted in an increase of $135,852 from the figure voters approved last year. These included the higher cost of diesel, gasoline and heating oil, as well as a police department wage-scale adjustment to keep wages competitive with surrounding towns. Smith previously told The Sentinel that the tax rate would increase by an estimated 30 cents per $1,000 of assessed value if all warrant articles passed.

Marlborough voters also approved the following allocations to capital reserve funds: $25,000 to the police cruiser capital reserve fund, $10,000 to the fire equipment capital reserve fund, $20,000 to the highway equipment capital reserve fund, $10,000 to the road maintenance capital reserve fund and $8,000 to the town reassessment capital reserve fund.

Residents agreed to raise $100,000 for stormwater infrastructure planning, design and construction. As part of this, the town will apply for Clean Water State Revolving Funds, according to Smith. The ballot vote passed 54-7.

Voters then approved spending $14,741 for local services, such as Monadnock Family Services and The Community Kitchen. Residents also approved a re-adoption of the optional veterans’ tax credit and authorized the town to establish or amend fees.

In the town elections, voters elected Julie Farhm to library trustee for a three-year term over Charley Wright. Farhm received 74 votes while Wright finished with 22.

Elected without contest: Jane Pitt to a three-year term on the selectboard; Kathleen Chamberlain, town clerk/tax collector, three years; Jeffrey B. Miller, advisory budget committee member, three years; Michael Desabrais, advisory budget committee member, two years; John Manning, fire ward, three years.

Overall, 102 votes were cast out of the 1,370 registered voters, or about 7 percent.

Christopher Cartwright can be reached at ccartwright@keenesentinel.com or 603-352-1234, extension 1405.

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(c)2023 The Keene Sentinel (Keene, N.H.)

Visit The Keene Sentinel (Keene, N.H.) at www.sentinelsource.com

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Josephine Moore
The Register-Herald, Beckley, W.Va.
(TNS)

Mar. 28—The Beckley Common Council approved the purchase of vehicles for the police and fire departments, which they said was no easy feat in this market.

The Beckley council approved the purchase of a new fire engine for roughly $1 million. The truck will be paid for using funds from the fire levy and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

Beckley Fire Capt. Joe Coughlin told council members that fire engines typically need replaced every 20 years.

“Like with cars, it’s getting harder to get an engine now and if you try to order one and bid it out and do the bidding process, it’s a year to get one and the price changes,” Coughlin said.

City Treasurer Billie Trump said they were able to secure the engine through a “buying cooperative” which helped bypass the long bidding process while also saving the city some money.

Trump said the Beckley Police Department has been waiting over a year for new vehicles in a purchasing process complicated by supply chain issues.

“The (police) chief put in an order over a year ago for those on state contract and then we waited a year and then the order was canceled,” Trump said.

In light of the difficulty in obtaining new police vehicles, council members approved a resolution Tuesday to forgo the usual bidding process and purchase six new vehicles for the Beckley Police Department.

The six vehicles cost about $47,000 each, Trump said.

Trump said the city was lucky to find these vehicles after being tipped off by the Oak Hill Police Department that a dealership in North Carolina had about a dozen police cruisers available.

“We had to just act because once the word gets out, everybody gets lined up to get ’em,” Trump said.

Beckley Police Chief Dean Bailey said the department has needed new vehicles for some time.

“We’ve been in such need of cars that we’ve been piecing together 10- and 12-, 13-year-old cars just to try to keep the vehicles on the road, and they’re just becoming so unsafe,” Bailey said.

Bailey said it’s been roughly two years since the department has been able to find any new vehicles as a result of supply chain issues caused by Covid. He added that inflation has significantly increased the the price for police vehicles.

The Beckley Police Department also swore in five new officers, two females and three males, on Tuesday. The new officers are Ptl. David Brooks, Ptl. Jacob Stafford, Ptl. Rheanna Murray, Ptl. Alyssa Christian and Ptl. Darryl Cooper Jr.

Bailey said this brings the total number of officers, including himself, up to 58.

He added that the department now has a total of six female officers on the force, which is “probably the most females we’ve ever had at the police department at one time.”

“Females in law enforcement is very important,” Bailey said. “I can remember when I was coming up being a policeman, we needed females and we didn’t have — nobody wanted it … But nowadays, they want to be there, and I want them to be there, and the guys appreciate that.”

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com

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(c)2023 The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.)

Visit The Register-Herald (Beckley, W.Va.) at www.register-herald.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Fort Dodge City Council is getting ready to borrow about $14.5 million to pay for various projects and purchases, messengernews.net reported.

That money will be secured by issuing general obligation bonds that will be issued in June, the report said.

The general obligation bond issue debt will be paid off over a number of years with revenue from property taxes, the stormwater utility fee, the hotel/motel tax and tax increment financing, according to the report.

The fire department items to be paid for with the upcoming bond issue include:

• $800,000 for the recently delivered new fire engine.

• $700,000 for ongoing renovations at the firehouse.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Rosenbauer is developing a new “e” platform for its Panther ARFF (aircraft rescue and firefighting) truck that uses similar components with its current Panther ARFF truck and its RTX electric pumper.

“The major difference between the two is that the requirements for an ARFF truck are much more stringent in terms of performance,” says Philipp Platzl, Rosenbauer’s global product manager airport vehicles. “In the process of electrifying the current Panther generation, there’s no major difference in most of the systems, where it has the same cabin concept, axles, and pumping systems. We want to deliver a truck that can be charged up to 300-kilwowatts which are emission free.”

Duane Kann, Rosenbauer’s ARFF regional sales manager, says the Panther electric will have an Energy Backup System onboard, powered by a diesel engine like an APU (auxiliary power unit), that can be used as a booster to increase or extend energy in the entire system. “The Energy Backup System automatically engages when the battery is low enough to need the charge, but the truck is still always powered by batteries.”

The Panther electric will be built on the Rosenbauer Panther 6×6 chassis and cab that currently has tubular chassis frame rails, a high performance coil spring suspension, differential locks on the axles, with a fully-loaded top speed of approximately 70-mph and a fully-loaded acceleration of zero to 50-mph in 35 seconds. Kann notes, “The Panther electric will exceed both of these parameters, especially if the EBU (Energy Backup System) is engaged by the driver for an added power boost.”

The Panther electric will have a Rosenbauer N80 2,100-gallon per minute (gpm) pump, a 3,170-gallon water tank, a 400-gallon foam tank, a 500-pound dry chemical and/or Halotron system, a Rosenbauer RM35 turret with HydroChem, a single or twin-agent booster reel, preconnected hand lines, a windshield deluge system, and an automatic foam selection of 1% through 9%.

Panther electric 6×6 options will include a 6-kW to 15-kW power generator, multiple scene lighting configurations, an auxiliary air compressor,  tire pressure monitoring system, various slide-out shelves, a high pressure water pump, driver enhanced vision systems, a rear steer and an Electronic Stability Control system.

Kann says Rosenbauer plans on building a small number of Panther Electric ARFF trucks that will be partnered with key customers around the world.

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