Hartland — Voters in Hartland will be asked on Tuesday night to spend $235,00 for a new tanker truck for the Hartland Volunteer Fire Department.

The Special Town Meeting at Damon Hall begin at 7 with voting from the floor.

Fire Chief John Sanders said the new tanker is needed to replace an aging one housed in the town’s North Hartland station.

Hartland currently has two fire stations — one near Three Corners and another in North Hartland — Sanders said.

Each station houses an engine and a tanker, allowing crews to draw water and fight fires in a community with few hydrants, he said.

The truck that would be replaced is nearly 26 years old, Sanders said, and it saw previous wear and tear as a highway vehicle before being converted for fire department use.

“Life as a town highway truck is a little tough on those trucks,” Sanders said, adding the vehicle is at the end of its usefulness. “It needs to be taken off the road probably by the end of the year.”

Town Manager David Ormiston said he believes talk about replacing the tanker took place around Hartland’s annual Town Meeting in March, but officials decided to hold off bringing a warning article to voters until the purchase and financing could be worked out.

Fire officials have had time to discuss the new truck, he said, and the dealer’s purchase price is only good through September.

“If we wait the extra six months, seven months to the next Town Meeting, we’re almost a year out until we get this vehicle,” Ormiston said on Sunday.

Of the $235,000 needed to buy the tanker truck, $100,000 wpi;d come from a capital reserve account dedicated to fire department purchases. The town would then pay off the remaining $135,000 using a five-year lease from Mascoma Savings Bank.

Ormiston said that lease comes with a 2.45 percent interest rate, meaning the town will make annual payments of $28,928.

He said the vehicle purchase likely would impact the town property tax rate, but didn’t have an estimate readily available.

Ormiston said there will be roughly $100,000 left in the capital reserve fund, and the town’s intends to continue paying $50,000 yearly into the fund.

However, he said, that money is likely to be utilized as the fire department replaces its breathing apparatus in 2019 and 2020, and looks to future equipment replacement. 

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.