GILL — Representatives from the Fire, Police and Highway departments made their pitch to the Capital Improvement Planning Committee for new equipment this week, including a fire engine, a cruiser, a dump truck and an electromagnetic flow meter.
Each request is considered a reasonable potential expenditure under the regulations of the American Rescue Plan Act, which awarded $430,000 to Gill. While the $15,434 flow meter was minor enough an expense that the committee is recommending that voters approve it at the May 23 Annual Town Meeting, members opted to conduct more research and consider funding options before recommending the remaining items.
Highway Department
John Miner’s advocacy for an electromagnetic flow meter, or “mag meter,” for the sewer system was inspired by him putting his “neck on the line” as the new highway superintendent when he questioned the accuracy of the pre-existing pump cycle reading system conducted through an uncalibrated metering device. He was then able to develop a formula to get more accurate reads for the sewer system that invalidated the metering device’s effectiveness.
“After talking to many people, they all had the same answer for me and that is to install a mag meter in the system, and that will be an accurate way to get daily figures,” Miner wrote. “This system will be inside the pump station and will be easily accessible for calibration.”
Miner said general contractor R.H. White Companies Inc. was “very interested in completing” the project, which was quoted at $15,434.
Additionally, a proposed new dump truck, a 2022 International CV515 Dump Truck, would replace the town’s current 2005 Ford F-550.
“This is our most-used and relied-on vehicle in our fleet,” Miner wrote of the 2005 truck, which has 120,000 miles and 7,000 hours logged. “It is used for everything from checking roads, checking the pump station, getting parts, running errands, getting the mail, pulling the wood chipper and chain saws, hauling brush, chipping brush, picking up rubbish and going to classes or meetings.”
The new truck would come equipped with a Viking power angle front plow, a stainless steel body and potentially a wing plow.
“Many towns around us are running wing plows on their smaller vehicles also to save time and money,” Miner wrote. “A wing plow will enable us during a snowstorm to make one pass up and one pass back on a roadway, plowing the entire width of the roadway, rather than having to make two passes.”
Miner said he has been in contact with dealerships Nutmeg International and Allegiance Trucks regarding the potential purchase of a new vehicle. Nutmeg International, which Gill has done business with in the past, quoted the truck at $151,732 with a 10% contingency of $15,173.20 and no wing plow accounted for. Allegiance Trucks quoted the truck at $132,375 with a 10% contingency of $13,237.50.
Should a new truck be purchased, Miner said, the 2005 dump truck would be repurposed and fitted with bucket truck equipment taken from Gill’s 1995 GMC Sierra bucket truck. The 1995 truck would then be disposed of.
The idea to replace the Fire Department’s 1987 open-cab pumper with a new mini pumper was brought to the Selectboard in August 2021. At the time, the department — which has two full-size pumper trucks, a full-size tanker, and a rescue and brush truck — was advocating for a $315,000 four-wheel-drive mini pumper equipped with a 300-gallon tank.
In a letter to the Selectboard, the upgrade was further rationalized with the consideration that the 1987 pumper “does not meet any NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) standards and is lacking in safety features.” A lack of doors in the rear seating area and lap-only seatbelts were also identified as problematic, whereas a mini pumper would have a fully enclosed cab and proper seatbelts. The mini pumper was not purchased.
Tuesday’s request to the Capital Improvement Planning Committee stemmed from the same incentives, but shifted toward a model that Deputy Fire Chief William Kimball argued would be even better. Kimball, who said he has done work on Greenfield’s new Pierce Responder 4×4 Attack Pumper, argued that this model would be ideal for serving the town of Gill.
“It was kind of a no-brainer when I came to the department that this is what we go for,” he said.
This model, which would cost around $410,000 and take roughly one year to build, would be an upgrade from the 1987 truck in similar ways to how the mini pumper would be. While the mini pumper would have 330 horsepower, a V8 diesel engine, 1,500 gallons-per-minute pumping capacity and a 300-gallon water tank, the attack pumper would have 360 horsepower, a Cummins L9 engine, 1,250 gallons-per-minute pumping capacity and a 750-gallon water tank.
“Having that water means instead of having a minute and a half of water, we have five or six, which is great,” Kimball explained. “That first five minutes of a fire can make or break whether or not you save a house.”
The idea for a new police cruiser was similarly brought to the Selectboard for consideration in August 2021 as the Police Department looked to replace its oldest model, a 2013 semi-marked cruiser with more than 116,000 miles on it and several parts needing replacement. The department hopes to replace it with a 2022 Ford Interceptor “that would match the remaining fleet with updated equipment and uniform fully-marked graphics,” as explained in the department’s letter to the Selectboard. The letter also stated the new cruiser would decrease gas usage.
Tuesday’s request to the Capital Improvement Planning Committee remained largely the same. The magnitude of need has been heightened in recent months, though, as a product of a vehicle accident that resulted in the “total loss” of Chief Christopher Redmond’s cruiser, which is just one of three the department has.
The estimated cost to replace the 2013 Ford Interceptor remains around the $57,750 cost referenced in August, a price that includes the transfer of existing equipment.
“It’s pretty much just a standard police car,” Redmond explained. “The only difference is it will be a hybrid edition.”
While the Capital Improvement Planning Committee is responsible for reviewing capital requests and creating a capital plan for fiscal year 2023, the Selectboard ultimately has the authority to decide which capital requests are presented to Annual Town Meeting voters.
Reach Julian Mendoza
at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.