CORINNA – In three weeks, the town’s 1981 GMC firetruck will be out of service, unable to pass a routine vehicle inspection. Facing potential costs of up to $78,000 to keep the truck on the road, Corinna selectmen hesitantly decided to place an article before the voters at the March town meeting to purchase a new truck in 2001 at a cost of up to $150,000.

Fire Chief Alan Clark presented the two options during the selectmen’s review of the department’s 2001 budget requests. Clark explained the 1981 truck barely passed its road inspection for 2000 and the department was warned it would not pass again without major refurbishing. The chief presented several estimates for refurbishing the truck ranging from $68,700 to $78,500.

“That’s a lot of money to put into an old truck,” Clark told selectmen, pointing out it has been six years since the town bought a new firetruck.

With those two thoughts, Clark presented quotes for six different new trucks ranging from $148,000 to $159,000. All of the trucks offered an International cab and chassis, 1,000-gallon tank, aluminum body, 1,250 gallons-per-minute pump and foam capability.

Foam is becoming a new standard in firefighting, Clark said. It can extinguish fires faster and with less property damage, he said.

Clark favors the lower-priced truck manufactured by Toyne Fire Apparatus of Iowa and distributed by a Massachusetts firm.

“It’s more truck for less money,” he told the board, explaining he had a chance to see one at a regional convention of fire chiefs.

Selectmen analyzed the proposal for a new truck at length before voting unanimously to place the decision before voters at the March town meeting.

“This is a town that lost 30 percent of its tax base in 1996,” said Selectman Galen McKenney. “Are we still in a position to maintain a fire department with three trucks?”

The loss of the 1981 truck and the wait for a new truck will place the town at a disadvantage, Clark said. The town will be more dependent than usual on mutual aid from neighboring departments. Making that a permanent alternative would place a greater burden on the other departments, he said.

“This town warrants a three-truck system,” Clark said. “There are no hydrants. We have to truck water. Our response time will be the same, but the actual savings [in fire damage] wouldn’t.”

Dropping back to a two-truck system could also affect insurance rates for homeowners, the chief said.

The town will operate as a two-truck system almost immediately because the 1994 truck will be in the body shop getting a long-awaited paint job. An error in construction created a corrosion problem that the manufacturer recently acknowledged and agreed to pay for, Clark told the board. The chief is eager to get the work done before the new year, when the department will be forced to take the 1981 truck out of service.

Selectmen proposed purchasing the new truck with a five-year note, making the first payment in 2001.