OXFORD — Selectmen continued a months-long debate at their Oct. 3 meeting about the most prudent ways to acquire a new mini-pumper truck and replace its totaled ambulance.

After the four in attendance at the meeting deadlocked, thereby voting down options to purchase both vehicles on lease purchase with varying terms, in the end a three to one vote resulted in the decision to acquire them both at a total cost of $948,245.

Vice-Chair Dana Dillingham and Selectman Scott Hunter voted against the proposal which Chair Floyd Thayer and Selectperson Sharon Jackson voted in favor. Selectman Caldwell Jackson did not attend the meeting.

Going back to July, Fire Chief Ashley Wax-Armstrong had advocated for a new fire truck suitable for traversing narrow and sometimes seasonal camp roads to replace the department’s aging Engine 5.

Oxford voters appropriated $300,000 toward purchasing a new pumper truck during annual town meeting in June.

However, selectmen balked at the chief’s July 25 proposal to bypass the competitive bid process to secure an in-stock Ford 550 from Lakes Region Fire Apparatus, an Alexis Fire Equipment dealer located in Ossipee, NH, even though it would have shaved more than two years off the wait for delivery.

Part of the board’s caution during that meeting lay in the fact that they anticipated having to replace one of Oxford’s two ambulance, which had been totaled in a crash in June.

During its August 15 business meeting, Wax-Armstrong reported she had found two suitable ambulance replacements, a Ford gas model outfitted with a Braun ambulance box for $430,000 and a Ford diesel with a Demers ambulance box for $380,000.

One of Oxford’s 2018 ambulances was totaled after it was involved in a head-on collision on Route 26 July 12. Supplied photo

Because the town lost one of its main rescue vehicles to an accident, the department qualified for an expedited order and delivery process.

Wax-Armstrong expressed that the gas-powered engine was the most feasible choice, as it would be equipped with higher quality equipment with the benefit of having an identical setup to the ambulance still in use by Oxford’s rescue personnel.

As with the process of acquiring a pumper truck, selectmen directed Wax-Armstrong to post a request for proposal with 30-day bid deadline for a new ambulance.

Only one ambulance bid, $456,050 from Autotronics of Bangor, was submitted by Sept. 25.

Autotronics is the supplier of Oxford’s two most recent ambulances and is providing a loaner for the totaled vehicle at no charge, which will continue to be available until the new one is delivered.

Earlier in the month, bids for a pumper truck were received: one from New England Fire Truck and one for a Ford 550 from Lakes Region, as Wax-Armstrong had recommended last summer, for $492,195.

Based on references she collected, Wax-Armstrong explained that servicing a vehicle through New England Fire Truck would require it to be sent to Connecticut, but that Lakes Region would either send a technician to Oxford or provide service from its Bangor location.

In addition to $300,000 in reserve approved by voters, Oxford received a $200,000 insurance settlement for the totaled ambulance.

Last week, Dillingham queried Wax-Armstrong which would be a higher priority – a pumper truck or ambulance, and if the fire department could adequately serve the community without a replacement for Engine Five for a year or more.

She answered that an ambulance was more important, but since the board had approved selling off a spare fire engine earlier this year and voters had appropriated money toward another, the department could suffer if Engine Five was not replaced.

Dillingham pointed out that a lease purchase for two fire rescue vehicles would require spending money that had not been budgeted, during a time when property taxes have already increased.

“I don’t think anybody wants to spend money before we have it,” he said. “If the ambulance is more important, we buy one with the $500,000 [outright] and discuss the pumper another time. That’s my motion.”

Hunter seconded the motion. But Thayer and  Jackson voted in opposition.

In continuing discussion, Jackson and Thayer stated that if townspeople appropriated $300,000 for a fire vehicle the board was not authorized to spend the funds on an ambulance, and that if the town received $200,000 in insurance on the totaled ambulance, that money could only be used to replace it.

Jackson made a motion to proceed with the best lease purchase for both vehicles, with $300,000 allocated as down payment on a fire pumper and $200,000 as down payment on a new ambulance, which Thayer seconded.

Both voted in favor, with Dillingham joining them – “begrudgingly” – he said.

Hunter voted against the proposal, making it a three to one vote in favor of acquiring both vehicles.

Wax-Armstrong said that both vehicles will be delivered by November of next year.