TOWN NEEDS NEW FIRE TRUCK

February 14, 2013

Newport Center voters will be asked on Town Meeting Day to approve $25,000 for the next four years for the purchase of a replacement fire truck. The truck (on page 10) is succumbing to rust. Photo by Christopher Roy

NEWPORT CENTER – Newport Center needs a new fire truck, and the town will ask voters on Town Meeting Day to approve $25,000 a year for the next four years for the purchase.
Chief Kurk Flynn said the department wants to replace a 1975 pumper truck that has massive amounts of rust, which makes it unsafe.
The department purchased the existing GMC truck used in the mid-1990s. It has a 10-speed manual transmission and a gasoline engine. Department officials would like the new truck to have a diesel engine, which is more powerful than gas. Flynn would also like the new truck to have an automatic transmission. He feels it’s necessary to have a truck that can easily climb steep hills, something that’s a problem now.

For more about Newport Town's need for a new fire truck, see the story in Friday's edition of The Newport Daily Express for Feb. 15, 2013.