Milo to purchase pumper truck

MILO — The town of Milo will purchase a replacement pumper truck for the fire department.

A May 27 special town meeting vote authorized the select board to borrow up to $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 department’s minipumper overheated during a fire last month on Elm Street, Fire Chief Mike Harris said.

The 25-year-old vehicle lost a head on the motor and the estimate to fix is $15,000 to $20,000. The truck is currently out of service.

The body is separating from the chassis and would cost another $20,000 to $25,000 to fix. 

“So I suggested if we are going to fix the motor we might as well fix the body while we’re at it and we’re looking at about $50,000 to do both things,” Harris said. 

The question is whether to do this on a truck with a standard transmission that only around a half dozen firefighters are qualified to drive.

“A new truck would be an automatic and much easier to operate,” Harris said.

Harris found a 2023 minipumper in Canada with about 7,000 miles for around $250,000.

A brand new vehicle would cost over $1 million.

“We got to have it, that’s my issue,” Select Vice Chair Lee McMannus said. “We’re charged with having a working fire department here.”

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. 

“I don’t see a lot of risk to taking that cash and paying it off,” Town Manager Bob Canney said. The reserve is healthy enough to do, he said.

 “The pumper truck is the most important piece of equipment, other than the firefighters,” Canney said.