Bolton town meeting to vote Tuesday on $818,000 fire truck

Skyler Frazer, Journal Inquirer, Manchester, Conn.
·3 min read

Oct. 18—BOLTON — Voters will be asked at a town meeting Tuesday to approve the purchase of a truck for the Bolton Volunteer Fire Department.

The special town meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday in Town Hall, 222 Bolton Center Road.

Voters will consider a resolution to appropriate $810,000 to buy an engine tanker for the Bolton Volunteer Fire Department and approve the issuance of $630,000 bonds and notes to partially finance that appropriation.

The item already is on the ballot for the Nov. 2 election for final approval, but the town's charter first requires it be approved at a town meeting.

First Selectman Sandra Pierog explained that the charter requires a few steps when bonding for capital projects. Following a recommendation from the Board of Selectmen and approval from the Board of Finance, an appropriation must then be approved via town meeting.

Projects above a certain amount must be approved at referendum.

The cost of the fire truck itself wouldn't force a referendum, Pierog said, but town officials hope to wrap the truck expenditure with bonding for other capital projects, such as a new school roof, that have not yet been approved.

Pierog said that the town's attorney recommended that the town follow the usual protocol with the fire truck to get voter approval, but delay bonding until other projects are approved.

If the bonding for the fire truck is approved at the town meeting, its fate would be determined at the Nov. 2 election.

But if it's rejected at the town meeting, the results of the upcoming referendum question would be void.

"Tuesday's town meeting is a formality, but it has to happen," Pierog said. "I'm hoping that there's enough support to at least go to the next step, which is referendum."

Town officials said it's been more than five years since the fire department requested new apparatus. According to information from the town, the new truck would replace a 30-year-old truck, the ET334. The new truck is the first to respond to all type of fires, alarms, hazardous material incidents, motor vehicle accidents, and other emergencies, according to documents from the town.

Compared to the department's existing truck, the new truck would have an updated diesel engine with a better emission system, more computerized electronics, air bags, rollover protection, and other safety features. It would have a 1,000-gallon water tank and 1,500 gallons of water-per-minute fire pump.

The hose-carrying bed has been redesigned on the newer truck to make it easier to pack hose and get the fire hose off the truck during an emergency, town officials said.

The new truck also would have more spacious compartments, an aluminum body to resist corrosion, and a cab designed to allow smooth mechanical transition by fire department operators.

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