GILEAD – Residents voted to buy a new firetruck but turned down a request to provide snowplowing for a new housing development road at a special town meeting Saturday night.
Administrative Assistant Beverley Corriveau said nearly 60 people turned out for the meeting.
Those casting ballots narrowly defeated a request by members of the Androscoggin Valley Views Development Association to begin plowing the .6-mile access road by a vote of 20-24.
Corriveau said about eight of the 12 lots are occupied on the Bear Mountain and Mount Tumbledown roads.
The association contracts a private business to plow the privately-owned road during winter.
She said a similar request was turned down a couple of years ago. In order for the town to consider taking over the road for winter maintenance, Corriveau said the road must be brought up to state standards, a cost that would be borne by the development’s individual owners.
By a vote of 37-20, voters agreed to buy a new pumper tank firetruck to replace an ailing 1973 model at a cost of about $210,000.
About $73,500 of the total figure will come from a Community Rural Development grant. The remainder of approximately $136,500 will be financed by the town through CRD over 10 years.
Before the vote was taken, Corriveau said Fire Chief Kenneth Cole provided residents with several options, including disbanding the Gilead Fire Department and contracting with neighboring Bethel.
She said the cost to contract for the service would be more than buying a truck and continuing to maintain a volunteer fire department.
In a written statement presented by Cole to voters, a figure of about $9,400 would have to be paid to Bethel as an availability fee. Any actual response to Gilead by the Bethel Fire Department would incur additional fees
Also, if the Gilead Fire Department was to disband, the town would no longer benefit from the mutual aid agreement it has with neighborhood towns to answer fire and other emergency calls, and the hazardous materials team in Rumford that is used from time to time when large trucks are involved in accidents on Gilead roads.
eadams@sunjournal.com
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