The village is hoping to have a new $450,000 pumper truck for its fire department by this time next year. The truck would replace the 27-year-old pumper now in service.
Village Mayor Bill Murphy said the village wants to replace the truck using little or no village taxpayer money, although so far the search for grants has come up empty.
Village trustees had a chance to see what a new truck would look like at their Aug. 4 meeting, when John Kelleher, a sales rep for Sutphen Fire Apparatus of Kingston, brought a demonstration model to the meeting.
In response to questions about the possibility of purchasing a used truck, Fire Chief Dave Mason said that “would just be buying someone else’s headache.”
When the new truck arrives, almost all of the equipment, ladders and hoses from the truck being replaced will be transferred to the new vehicle. The only additional cost will be to wire the new truck for a new radio communication system.
The village’s fire department is volunteer, like the town department’s. However, while each town department is funded by its own special district (whose increases are often overlooked by taxpayers and do not make headlines), the village department is funded through the regular village budget.
