New Fire Truck on the Way for North Madison
A new fire truck is on the way for the North Madison Volunteer Fire Company (NOMAD). After years of financial planning for the new piece of equipment, on Jan. 26 the Board of selectmen authorized $609,257 for the purchase of a new truck that will be delivered sometime in the fall.
The fire truck is a Pierce-Arrow, a maker commonly used by the department, and will replace the current 10-55 engine, the department’s 24-year old truck.
The truck serves as a water source pumper and, as North Madison does not have any fire hydrants, the truck can pull from the department’s underground water tanks or any other body of water at a rate of 2,000 gallons a minute.
Fire trucks are custom built and specifications for each truck can be up to 150 pages long, according to NOMAD Chief Donnie MacMillan. With the money now approved, the truck will take about eight months to build. The department and town have signed the contract up front and paid the full amount for the truck immediately, a tactic that saves money according to MacMillan.
“If we pay the full amount within 15 days then they [the builder] don’t have to borrow the money to go out and build the truck,” he said. “We save on their finance charges is what it comes down to which is to the tune of about $30,000.”
Funds for the truck come out of a reserve account in the Capital Improvement Program that are set aside each year. The trucks are replaced on an apparatus replacement schedule and MacMillan said the cost of this truck is well within the budgeted guidelines.
“We shoot for 20 [years of use for a truck] and by the time we get around to replacing it, we are approaching 22 or 23 years,” he said. “It depends. They are not particularly run hard—it is not like we are an urban fire department. Unless there is a major component failure, we usually have it for about 20 years.”
What happens to the old trucks? While the town owns the vehicles and has the right of first refusal, the old apparatuses are generally donated to more rural fire departments that cannot afford a new truck.
“They don’t have the resources to buy a new truck and yeah, sure, we could sell it, but I think the goodwill it creates is more than any dollar amount we could get,” he said, noting the retired truck would go to a department in New Hampshire. “I think we replaced a 1950s piece of apparatus for them, so even though they are 25 years behind, for them it is a brand new piece of equipment.”
At the Board of Selectmen meeting, First Selectman Tom Banisch said he had received thank you notes from departments that receive the donated vehicles. MacMillan said it is nice to see the donated vehicles put to good use.
“Madison Hose Co. 1, when they replaced one of their trucks, they gave it to a town down in Texas and I think a week later it was on ABC news because they responded to a bunch of tornados and you could still see the Madison Hose insignia,” he said.