Weston board to look at fire truck purchase

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2016 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Members of the Weston Volunteer Fire Department returned to the Select Board on Tuesday, June 14 with bid documents from the vendor it selected for a new tanker truck.

Chief Wes Hupp told the board that the bids from 4 Guys Stainless Steel Firetrucks and KME were extremely close at $300,000 and $306,000 and that after reviewing the bids they decided on KME to build the town a new tanker. The current tanker has been in service since 1987.

According to Hupp, the bids are good for 60 days — until July 9 and there would be a discount for paying upfront. Chairman Denis Benson told Hupp that the board would like to take some time to review the bid and discuss at its June 28 meeting.

New zoning administrator Hal Wilkins told the board that he has worked on several project applications including Walker Farm — the expansion of the Weston Playhouse — and Kinhaven and said, “I’m having a lot of fun.”

Wilkins said he would be looking into a number of planning and zoning issues including junkyard regulations that a number of other towns in Vermont have adopted. He said that it “wasn’t going to happen quickly.”

“There’s a fine line between taxing the bejesus out of somebody, then telling them what they can do with their land,” cautioned Benson.

Road Superintendent Almon Crandall explained VTrans’ recommendations for work to be done on three bridges in town and added that Cargill had given the town the same price for road salt as last year. The board accepted the bid of $81.80 per ton for 275 tons of salt delivered. The board also discussed the Bridge 98 detour at length but — with just nine days remaining of the closure — the board was unable to reach an agreement on how to improve the situation.

When the water for the Little School came up, board member Charles Goodwin said he could not discuss the contract with Stantec except in an executive session. Members wondered aloud about the legality of such a session, but in the end decided to go ahead. When they exited the session, they decided to table the contract until Goodwin has time to ask questions of Stantec.

Bruce Frauman explained to the board that the Town of Londonderry is spearheading an effort to put a generator into the Flood Brook School to make it a better emergency shelter.

The idea is for several towns to contribute to the project and Frauman told the board that the contribution to the purchase of the generator is calculated by population, with Weston’s share being about $3,000.

After a short discussion of the timing of payments and whether the contribution could be made in next year’s budget, board member Bruce Downer said, “I don’t know why we are waiting with these numbers.” Goodwin concurred, then made a motion to fund the generator contribution, which passed unanimously.