Special meeting approves purchase of used bucket truck, to be paid from emergency rainy day fund

At a special town meeting, officials voted to buy a used 2012 Ford F450 bucket truck for $16,000 and to cover the purchase from the town's emergency rainy day allocation.

The vote followed a presentation by Speaker 2, a town staff member, who described the vehicle and the condition of the town's existing truck. "It's a 2012 Ford f 4 50 bucket truck. It has an Olathex a t 200 lift mechanism with a working height of 34 feet. It's a 6.8 liter v 10. It has a 197,000 miles on it," Speaker 2 said. The staff member also noted a 7,000-watt generator with about 150 hours, receptacles for power tools, a backup camera and a dedicated battery backup to lower the bucket if the truck battery fails.

The meeting record shows discussion about the condition of the town's current truck, which staff described as having a hole in the exhaust manifold…