Knox polls open again for firetruck sale

Enterprise file photo — Marcello Iaia

Truck 1632 parked in the Knox firehouse carries 3,000 gallons of water and pumps 1,250 gallons per minute. District commissioners are hoping to get approval from residents to sell the truck, which was originally purchased for roughly $230,000, in order to start an apparatus rotation plan and purchase a custom truck that is more versatile for firefighting.

KNOX — When it was made clear that the fire district vote on Oct. 28 would be strictly on the sale of a tanker truck, the questions from residents about a new one had already been exhausted.

About 20 residents turned out on Thursday for an informational meeting held by the Knox Fire Commissioners. With a PowerPoint presentation and a chalkboard, the commissioners explained why they wanted to sell a 14-year-old tanker that transports and pumps water.

They had asked for residents’ permission in an election in August; in which 15 voted in favor of the sale and 15 voted against.

Dana Sherman, chair of the commissioners, said he suspects misinformation was spread about the impact of a new truck purchase on residents’ taxes.

“We’ll use the extra money from the sale to help us buy a new truck and keep the tax rate relatively flat,” said the district’s secretary, Frank Fuss. He noted a truck’s working life is between 20 and 25 years. After that, its pump is likely to break, or weaken below national standards used by insurance companies to set their rates.

The sale is meant to initiate a rotation plan for the district’s trucks, where a 21-year-old truck would be sold every seven years, avoiding large purchases in short periods of time.

That happened for Knox when, in the 1990s, two of its trucks were run past their valuable lifetimes and needed to be replaced around the same time, said Fuss. Two trucks manufactured in 2000 were purchased.

The commissioners want to sell the tanker, Fuss explained, because its water-carrying capacity is harder to find and therefore more in demand by other districts.

Commissioner Rick Fortuin said the expected sale price of the 3,000-gallon tanker truck is $175,000. The new, custom truck would cost at least $750,000, holding the same amount of water, plus up to eight firefighters and firefighting equipment, like ladders.

Fortuin said he had not sought a formal quote for replacing a broken pump, but estimated it would cost between $20,000 and $30,000.

The pump on the district’s tanker is not broken.

“It’s not just the pump that we’re worried about,” said Commissioner Robert Stevens. “The truck is hard to work off of. It’s not serving our purpose now. We’ve got older firemen. It’s hard to get a portable pond off the side of it. There’s not enough suction hose on the truck.”

Many younger residents work out of town during the day, Fuss noted, saying that the town’s fire protection during the day might be a handful of elderly men and a couple of high schoolers. He referred to a nationwide trend of decreasing volunteers in emergency services like the Knox Fire Company.

“That means you only need one operator during the day to roll that truck,” he said of the custom truck. “And you show up with a lot more water.” He noted that now, with two trucks for water and fighters aiding another department with fighting a fire, just one truck is left in Knox, making the town’s own fire services more reliant on another department.

Chief Bill Vinson said the Knox tanker is on automatic mutual aid if a call is made for the Berne Fire Company, since the Berne tanker is out of service.

On the advantage of a custom-made truck, Sherman said the protection against rolling the truck, using a reinforced cab, of the more expensive option could save a life one day.

It would also have a more powerful engine.

“We have to deal in minutes and seconds,” said Sherman. “The faster we can get there, the more water we can get on to it in a hurry and the more men we can get there.”

Sherman said Knox once had 60 members, with 12 people on a waiting list. The volunteer company now has 21 members.

“I’m afraid you're going to see it in Knox,” said Bob Stevens. “In the next 10 to 15 years, you’re going to have to pay two men to sit in this firehouse.”

So far this year, Vinson said, the company has had 56 calls, mostly for car accidents; it has responded to about three structure fires and three mutual-aid calls. It had 51 calls in 2013.

The special election to sell tanker 1632 will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the Knox firehouse on Route 156.

More Hilltowns News

  • As Berne-Knox-Westerlo Superintendent Timothy Mundell laid out the district’s progress toward its next budget while the district waits on lawmakers to finalize a state budget, conversation centered around one of the few things the district can control at this point — whether or not to go ahead with its annual bus purchase.

  • On Wednesday, March 27, the state’s Department of Public Service will hold two public hearings — in addition to an ongoing survey — on broadband that will be an important opportunity for state residents to correct previous maps and analyses that determine broadband availability. 

  • The two towns — one rural, one suburban — will now essentially share affordable housing credits so that Guilderland can use Knox’s typically unused credits to satisfy its large waiting list, while Knox is still able to claim them for its own residents as needed. 

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