ANCRAM–The Ancram Fire District will be getting its new 2013 International Class A Pumper fire truck.
Voters turned out in force Tuesday night, December 13 to give the fire district the go ahead to finance by bonds $200,000 of the $332,000 cost of the new truck. The fire district has $132,000 saved up, which it will put down on the new truck.
The vote tally was 120 Yes and 22 No, according to Fire Commissioner Bill Hunt, who said usually only about a dozen voters show up to cast ballots in fire district elections. “I think the fire truck was the big draw,” he said.
The fire district plans to sell the old 1988 Mack fire truck under its 25-year replacement policy.
Running unopposed, Will Lutz handily won re-election as fire commissioner with 135 votes. Eight votes were written-in for people and a cartoon character, whose names were not on the ballot, Mr. Hunt said.
The new truck referendum came under fire at the November Town Board meeting, when Fire Chief David Boice came to publicly discuss it. Some residents complained that they had not heard about the referendum until they received an email about it from Town Supervisor Art Bassin.
