Weston Fire Department truck fails to meet pumping standards

By Bruce Frauman
©2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The Weston Select Board on Tuesday, Dec. 13 learned that two one of the Weston Volunteer Fire Department’s trucks do not meet current standards. The department’s 18-year-old pumper is pumping 1,200 gallons per minute instead of the required 1,500 gallons per minute, and the its 30-year-old tanker-pumper, which is rated at 1,000 gallons per minute, is only putting out 387 gpm.

The problem with the 1987 tanker-pumper is that the impeller has warped after 30 years of drafting from ponds, possibly clogging the screen. It would cost $5,000 to replace the impeller, Weston Fire Chief Wes  Hupp told the board.

News of pumper’s failure to meet standards is “a surprise to all of us,”  Hupp told the board. “No one can really rely on it to: A. Get there and B. Do what it is supposed to do.”

Chris Thwaits, a sales representative from KME, which customizes fire trucks, said the price for a new tanker-pumper has gone up at most 4 percent from the $306,304 quoted last June. He is waiting for a quote on a 2018 chassis instead of the 2017 chassis included in the earlier quote. He said he’ll provide a quote that will stay good through a Town Meeting voting in March, if needed.  Thwaits also works with the Community Leasing Partners to help finance municipal trucks, and can discount the price if the truck is paid for in total, as is possible with the municipal equipment loan fund.

Town Treasurer Kim Seymour told the board that there is currently $216,000 in a truck fund, with $35,000 to be added in March. Last June, the Select Board thought it  could not authorize a loan to purchase a new truck. Since then, Chief Hupp learned from the Vermont League of Cities and Towns that the Select Board can approve a loan without a public vote  if a town is borrowing from the state’s municipal equipment loan fund for a firetruck. The fund can lend up to $110,000 to a municipality in any given year. At the request of Select Board vice chair Jim Linville, Hupp will check on the availability of municipal equipment loan funds.

The Municipal Equipment Loan Fund is administered by the State Treasurer and, in a phone call on Tuesday, Dec. 20, John Booth of the Treasurer’s office said that while select boards can borrow for fire trucks, that is not as clearly defined in statute as borrowing for road equipment and so a town lawyerl will generally advise the select board to put the loan to a vote. “When I look at a loan application,” said Booth, “one thing I’m looking for is the result of a town meeting article or a special vote.”

Wilder Library maintenance

Wilder Memorial Library director Amanda Merk and library trustee Malcolm Hamblett told the board that among maintenance work, library stairs and front steps need upgrading and the front door needs replacing. Resident Donald Hart asked about the historic nature of the library and suggested the front door might be restored instead of replaced. Hamblett said the trustees will look into restoration.

The most expensive requirement may be a fire alarm that connects to a responder. Chief Hupp recommended Countryside in Mount Holly as a contractor who evaluates an alarm, then “tone’s out” the fire department.

Hamblett said the library needed about $10,000 more than the annual operating costs of the library. Linville asked Hamblett to “do the best job you can to figure out what you need … then we’ll figure out how to address it in the budget.”

Board member Charles Goodwin told Merk and Hamblett that the maintenance should be considered as separate from the usual operating expenses of the library. Linville added that “we are so glad, speaking on behalf of everyone here, that you guys work so hard on that building and care about it, because its a little jewel of our town.”

• In other business, Road Foreman Almon Crandall started the meeting by presenting a price for roadside mowing by a contractor who does work job for Andover that is  $3,000 more than what it currently costs the town. The town owns an 18-year-old sickle bar mower that “is getting tired,” according to Crandall and rents a tractor each year for a month.
• With Goodwin abstaining, the board approved Collector of Delinquent Taxes Sandy Goodwin’s request to retain an attorney to conduct a tax sale for two properties.  In addition, the board passed a motion to have a town agent at the tax sales  to protect the town’s interest. Goodwin said that in previous years, the owners paid back taxes on both properties before they went to a tax sale.
• The board approved an evacuation plan written by the Windham Regional Commission.
• Eleanor Smith has been invited to accept an appointment to the Council on Aging.
• And the town has one resume for the open position of the Zoning Administrator and another person is “putting together a resume,” according to Board member Annie Fuji’i. In addition, the board asked board Secretary Cheryl Barker to advertise in the local newspapers for the position.