New Milo fire pumper truck to hit the road
MILO — A replacement pumper truck for the Milo Fire Department has arrived from suburban Nashville, Tennessee, and is about to be put into service.
The Milo Select Board had been authorized to borrow up to $250,000 for a minipumper or rescue pumper to replace a 25-year-old minipumper that overheated during an April fire on Elm Street.
The Mount Juliet Fire Department, 15 miles outside of Nashville, has an $80 million budget and buys a new truck every five years. Its 2020 model with a 1,500 gallon pump and 13,000 miles was available, and it accepted Milo’s offer of $250,000.
Firefighters traveled to central Tennessee and drove the truck back to Milo, Fire Chief Mike Harris told the Select Board during a July 8 meeting. Travel went well until running into heavy traffic in Massachusetts.
“For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s pretty much brand new,” he said. “The department we bought it off was very, very helpful. They left probably $7,000 to $8,000 worth of equipment on it.”
Items include a thermal imager, large diameter hose and two preconnects.
At the special town meeting, the Select Board was authorized to borrow $250,000 for a term of up to five years at an estimated interest rate of 4.912% for a minipumper or rescue pumper. The interest on the $250,000 principal is an estimated $32,464.
The approved article included an amendment to use $200,000 from fund balance to pay off a department rescue truck’s remaining debt, eliminating one fire department payment.
The previous quarter-century-old minipumper with a standard transmission lost a cylinder head, with repair estimates between $15,000 and $20,000. The body is separating from the chassis and would cost another $20,000 to $25,000 to fix.
A brand new vehicle would have cost more than $1 million.
In other business, a special town meeting will likely be scheduled before the next regular select board meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, to vote on using the line of credit for the town’s share of the forthcoming $7.2 million public safety building off outer Park Street.
“We have not touched that yet. It’s a little over ($825,000),” Town Manager Bob Canney said. “We are going to have to use that.”
The special town meeting vote would put the line of credit out to the Maine Municipal Bond Bank.
“We don’t have a lot of options. We need to pay it,’ Canney said. “This allows us to spread the payment out.”
The length and terms will be discussed Aug. 12. Tax Increment Financing District funds could be designated for the line of credit.
Public safety building construction is on schedule, Canney said, and could be completed by Sept. 1.
The new building will house the fire, police and public works departments. Milo can spend up to $6.4 million in USDA funds for the public safety building, which will be located at the business park, less than a mile from the 100-year-old town hall where the fire and police departments are currently located.
Work to install a sidewalk along Penquis Drive, off West Main Street to the Penquis Valley School, should go out to bid in the near future. The goal is to have the sidewalk in place before classes resume in late August.
The state awarded Milo a $100,000 Community Enterprise Grant for the sidewalk installation. Students would be able to walk to and from the building on the right side and not be in the road with all the vehicle traffic.
The town needs to provide an additional 25% of the total to meet a matching requirement, which would come out of the paving budget. Public works would do some demo work to help keep costs down.
This is the third such grant in four years awarded to the community. Milo used a similar grant to fund parking lot improvements several years ago and sidewalk repairs in 2025.
The town plans to apply for more funding in 2027 for a sidewalk leading to Milo Elementary along High Street.
A municipal land use ordinance will now likely be voted on in June 2027 instead of the November ballot, Canney said. This will ensure ample time for review internally and with legal counsel.
The community currently has no such measure in place. The proposed ordinance would bring the town into state compliance and balance property rights with community development protection.
Construction on a downtown information kiosk has begun with slab work. A number of people have asked Canney about the 14-by-14-foot project on a vacant lot next to Elaine’s Bakery & Cafe.
The economic development advisory committee has raised $5,000, a donor will match this total and any monies left over can go to other projects.
Inmates from the building trades program at Mountain View Correctional in Charleston will build the kiosk — the design resembles a train depot in a nod to the railroad heritage — for about $5,000. The information center will include waterproof bins for maps and handouts.