At the polls in November, Jefferson voters will consider a request from Jefferson Fire and Rescue to partially finance a new firefighting vehicle.
According to Jefferson Fire Chief Darin Walker, the truck, for which taxpayers will be asked to authorize the expenditure of about $97,000 from town surplus funds, will be paid for with funds from the fire department’s reserve account. The total cost of the truck is expected to be $373,710, Walker told the Jefferson Select Board at a meeting on Monday, Aug. 12.
The new pumper vehicle is needed to replace one of the fire department’s former trucks, which was 37 years old and showing signs of potentially dangerous “major wiring issues.”
“It almost burned up on us,” Walker said.
Walker said the truck was of a vintage in which wiring issues had become a known defect.
“Once the corrosion starts, if you don’t rewire the whole truck, it’s just a snowball effect,” he said. Walker also said the truck’s pump did not satisfactorily pass performance testing conducted within the last year.
The new truck, which is currently being manufactured, is a commercial “mini pumper,” smaller in size than the vehicle that it is intended to replace, Walker said in a phone call on Aug. 13.
However, it will have the same capacity as a larger pumper.
“We’ll still be able to use it for a structure fire,” Walker said. Considering its small size, the truck “will be more accessible to some of our camp routes,” he said.
With Jefferson seeing demographic shifts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more rural camps were being used as full-time residences, Walker said. This creates a greater need for the fire department to have vehicles capable of accessing structures on unpaved, overgrown roads, which are sometimes impassable to larger engines, he said.
“COVID has changed the dynamics of this town tremendously, with the number of people who are here year-round,” he said.
The fire department’s reserve account contains $276,963 that could be used to finance the truck, according to Jefferson Town administrator Lynne Barnikow.
Jefferson Select Board member Robert E. “Jigger” Clark made a motion to take the remaining funds from the town’s surplus account, pending authorization from taxpayers.
The exact current balance of the surplus is unknown, Barnikow said, because a shortage of accountants in recent years has delayed town audits. As of Monday, Aug. 12, Barnikow said the town had only just received its 2022 audit.
However, even without knowing the exact balance of town surplus funding, “we know we have the $100 thousand,” Clark said. Clark said taking the funds from surplus would prevent the need to raise taxes to accommodate the truck purchase.
Walker said the truck is not currently spoken for by Jefferson Fire and Rescue, creating the possibility another purchaser could buy it before the town is able to. In that case, Walker and the select board said, the town will continue its search for another pumper.
In other business, the select board discussed ongoing work on Egypt Road with Road Commissioner Wayne Johnston.
Johnston said he was nearly finished with ditching and expected to wrap up within the next few weeks.
“We’ve been working on that since April,” he said in a phone call on Tuesday, Aug. 13.
The board also authorized Johnston to hire Drilling and Blasting Rock Specialists, of Gardiner, to blast away ledge at areas where it is needed along the road. This blasting is expected to cost about $40,000, and will begin around Wednesday, Sept. 1, Johnston said.
The exact scope of the drilling and blasting is yet to be determined, pending a site visit with the select board, Johnston, and contractor.
The Jefferson Select Board will next meet on Monday, Sept. 9, at 6 p.m. in the Jefferson town office. For more information, call 549-7401 or go to jeffersonmaine.org.
