HARTFORD — The Hartford Fire Department soon will have its own ladder truck again as town officials recently closed on a deal to purchase one, a turn of events that was necessary after a maintenance check in April found a crack in the current ladder truck’s frame.

Hartford Fire Chief Scott Cooney said town officials have selected a 100-foot E-ONE ladder truck at a purchase price of $949,600 to replace the 75-foot E-ONE truck that had serviced the town for 18 years.

“It should service this town well for the next 20 years,” Cooney said this week.

The town has executed a purchasing contract with an emergency vehicle dealership in St. Albans, Vt., Cooney said. That dealership, Desorcie Emergency Products, will provide the town with a loaner ladder truck at no cost while the new truck is manufactured, Cooney said.

The town’s permanent truck is scheduled for manufacturing in September and for delivery in November. The temporary truck should arrive this week, Cooney said.

 The town sought bids for a new ladder truck last month, and the Selectboard at a special meeting last week unanimously approved financing an amount not to exceed $801,765.

The Vermont League of Cities and Towns deemed the broken truck a total loss in early June and cut Hartford a check for its worth — roughly $148,000. That money will be applied to the purchase of the new truck, Cooney said.

The truck will be purchased on a 10-year agreement, and the first payment will come out of the capital reserve account, with subsequent payments requiring approval from voters during the Town Meeting vote on the municipal budget. The town would own the truck once it is paid off.

The town’s truck went out of service in April after a maintenance check found that a minor collision in November caused more damage than initially thought.

The driver of the truck was returning from a road test on Interstate 91 when the truck hit a patch of ice and slid into a concrete bridge abutment. The crash bent two rims on the passenger side of the truck, and VLCT approved a claim to fix those and the tires at that time.

No one noticed the crack in the frame until April. The fire department has been without a ladder truck since then, and it has relied on its mutual aid partners in the event of an emergency where a ladder truck is needed.

The heights of several buildings in town now exceed the reach of the current 75-foot ladder truck’s, so it made sense to go with a 100-foot ladder truck, Cooney said.

The town last had a truck of that ladder length in 1995.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.