The borrowing was approved by a two-thirds show of hands.
Hampden Board of Selectmen Chairman John D. Flynn said it will take 12 to 14 months to special order a new fire truck.HAMPDEN – Voters at the Monday annual town meeting approved the borrowing of $360,000 for a new fire engine, subject to passage of a debt exclusion override vote on Monday’s town election ballot.
The borrowing was approved by a two-thirds show of hands.
Selectmen Chairman John D. Flynn said it will take 12 to 14 months to special order the new fire truck.
Next year, if there is sufficient money in the town’s stabilization account, the entire $360,000 will not be borrowed, Flynn said.
“We want to put down some and finance the rest,” Flynn said. He said town officials want to keep the yearly payment for fire vehicles to about $50,000 per year. The town will take out a five-year bond for the fire truck, Flynn said.
The town has just over $1 million in the town’s stabilization, or savings, account, Flynn said.
At the town meeting, voters approved the transfer of $254,000 of the $1 million to help fund the fiscal 2012 town budget.
Of the $254,000, $144,000 will go to pay some of the debt on the new Minnechaug Regional High School now under construction, $100,000 will go to renovate the fire station and $10,000 will go to repair a second Fire Department vehicle.
The fire station will be renovated so it can hold the new engine and provide additional storage, Flynn said.
The total fiscal 2012 town budget approved at the town meeting was $10.3 million.
Also approved at the town meeting was the appropriation of Community Preservation Act funds. Voters approved $3,000 in Community Preservation funds to digitize a history collection at the Hampden Public Library, $60,000 to replace breaker panels at the Centennial Commons housing project and $52,000 for erosion control at Memorial Park.
Also at the town meeting, voters approved $10,469 to pay the town’s share of a community resource police officer at Minnechaug Regional High School.
Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea said the community resource officer is a first responder at the high school and “key from a public safety point of view.”