The Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department’s fire truck committee opened bids this week for a new pumper truck that will replace a 31-year-old vehicle in its fleet.
Six vendors submitted bids ranging from $1.2 million to $1.5 million and provided various options for payment and delivery, which would probably take two years. The firefighters will assess the bids and make a recommendation to the selectmen next week.
“It’s my understanding that they have already rebuilt the pump on the old truck once,” First Selectman Henry Tirrell said. “Is it worth trying to rebuild it again if something goes wrong in a truck that old?”
Last spring the town allocated $130,000 in funds remaining from the retirement of its pension fund to start a savings account for the truck, with an additional $130,000 included in the 2026-27 budget.
“The fire department has done some fundraising toward it, and we also have preliminary approval for $885,000 in congressionally directed funding through Senator Blumenthal’s office,” Tirrell said. “But that has to go through the Senate Appropriations Committee and then pass the House, the Senate and be signed into law by the president, so it’s not guaranteed.”
He added that if the town does not receive approval for the grant this year, it will apply again next year.
The cost of apparatus continues to escalate—last spring the truck was estimated to cost $1.1 million and the lowest bid was $1.2 million—and the selectmen and firefighters are eager to secure a quote. “I hope we can have a special Board of Finance meeting this month and then a special town meeting” to approve it, Tirrell said.
Tirrell anticipates one other item on the town meeting call: authorization to construct a three-bay garage on the site of the new fire house. The garage, which is expected to cost $300,000 to $350,000, would be used to keep the department’s extra equipment out of the elements.
Tirrell explained earlier this month that the garage was cut from the fire house plan to reduce costs but, with successful fundraising and the expectation that the fire house construction costs will be below the $4 million in borrowing authorized by townspeople, town leaders would like to restore the facility to the plan.