PHILLIPS – The Phillips Fire Department will be purchasing a new pumper truck.
Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe recently announced the award of $189,000 to the department from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.
The department of 18 firefighters responds to an average of more than 100 fires annually in Phillips, Avon and Madrid and Freeman Townships using five vehicles. They also provide mutual-aid service to several surrounding towns.
The department’s newest truck is a 2004 fast attack truck. But most of the remainder of the fleet are old and some, by law, need to be replaced, said Fire Chief Glendon Bachelder Friday. One of the trucks is a 1969 donated tanker, another a 1982 oil tanker. Their engine truck will be 20-years-old in 2007, he said.
Bachelder expects to purchase a new vehicle that will be a tank and pump truck at a cost of about $200,000. The town will need to raise the additional funding, also a requirement to receive the federal money, which is a 90-10 grant, he said.
He credited Mark and Shelby Rousseau, Stan Wilcox and Jane Thorndike in helping to write the grant. They started the process at the beginning of the year, he said.
He doesn’t expect the truck to be delivered until mid-year 2005, which will give them the opportunity to shop around.
“We’re going to look around and get as much as we can for our money,” he said.
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