Article 2 on the Fall Town Meeting warrant asks residents to approve borrowing $965,096 for a new combination aerial/pumper firetruck. The department has received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for $762,000 toward the purchase of this type of truck, which will cost between $1.6 and $1.7 million. The vote to buy the truck must pass at Town Meeting, and authorization to fund the purchase with excluded debt needs to pass at the ballot box on Nov. 2.
The Capital Planning and Investment Committee voted unanimously at its Sept. 23 meeting to recommend the purchase, but not before questioning the necessity for this kind of truck in Harvard.
Fire Chief Rick Sicard told the committee there is a misconception that aerial trucks are needed only for tall buildings. He said in this town, it’s about reach. A lot of houses are set far back from driveways, and before the town had an aerial truck, firefighters were put in “precarious situations” carrying ladders over snow or having to place them on uneven ground to get to second floors.
When committee members asked if Harvard could instead rely on an aerial truck from a neighboring town, Sicard said only Ayer and Devens have them, and there would be no guarantee Harvard could get one when it was needed. He said it’s also important that the aerial truck be the first or second piece of equipment in a narrow driveway. “We see it as a critical piece for our operations,” he said.
The town currently owns one aerial truck, but it is 42 years old. It was purchased, used, in 2015 for about $20,000, and it responds to about 16% of all fire emergency calls. Sicard said the new truck would serve as both an aerial truck and a pumper engine, allowing it to respond to more types of emergency calls. He projected the new truck would be used about twice a week and said the frequency of responses would likely shorten the truck’s expected life from 30 years to 25 years.
Sicard is still pricing and evaluating trucks. The figure requested in Article 2 would cover the most expensive model he is considering. He said the new truck will be bigger than the current aerial truck, but he is only considering trucks that will fit in the current station’s apparatus bay.
The grant can be used only to purchase a combination truck, and the town must fund the remainder of the cost to receive the grant. If the town votes against the purchase, either at Fall Town Meeting or at the ballot box, the grant would be lost. The existing aerial truck is scheduled to be replaced in fiscal 2024, and Engine 1 would need to be replaced soon afterward.
Town Administrator Tim Bragan told CPIC the cost of a new aerial truck alone would be about $1.4 million, and a new pumper truck would cost at least $800,000. He said he estimates fire truck prices will climb about 10% per year.
If the new aerial/pumper truck is purchased, Sicard told the committee the next big fire truck purchase would not be until 2031. Buying the combination truck would allow the three existing pumper trucks to be put into reserve for six years at the end of their useful life. Engine 1, which is currently due to be replaced in 2025, would be put in reserve that year and replaced in 2031, the year Engine 4 will come to the end of its useful life.
The Finance Committee voted to recommend the purchase at its Oct. 6 meeting. Chair Jennifer Finch said the chief works hard to get grants every year, and this is a “really significant grant for something we were looking at purchasing next year anyway.” She added that the town would be “foolish” to turn down a grant and pay full price for an aerial truck next year. “I don’t ever see firetruck prices going down,” she said.
