New fire pumper truck could be delivered sooner than expected

It’s possible that the new fire pumper truck approved by Bethlehem voters at town meeting in March could be delivered sooner than expected. On Monday, the Select Board voted to approve a contract, one in which the payment would be an outright purchase in full rather than the lease purchase (originally entailing a $100,000 down payment from the town’s fire truck capital reserve fund and ten annual payments of $45,083) authorized by voters. And unlike previously, the new $493,447 fire engine also includes money for a trade-in of the Bethlehem Fire Department’s existing engine that can no longer stay in service because of age and safety issues. The final delivery of the new vehicle would be about 180 calendar days from the commercial chassis acceptance from the manufacturer that will build out the truck. But if another municipality is currently having a truck built out and its contract is canceled for whatever reason, if a chassis is there and if Bethlehem is next on the list, it would roll to Bethlehem quicker than anticipated, said Veronica Morris, chair of the Select Board.