Bartlett selectmen want old ladder truck inspected before accepting it as gift

Selectmen are still waiting for North Conway's old ladder truck to be inspected before deciding whether to accept Stoney Morrell's offer to purchase the 25-year-old engine for $15,000 and donate it to the town. On Friday, Fire Chief Pat Roberts met with the board to discuss a plan to have the ladder truck reviewed to see if there are "any glaring" problems with it. He had arranged for a "stem-to-stern, bumper-to-bumper" test of the ladder truck with Underwriters at a cost of $850. The fee included a complete inspection of the ladder system.Selectmen wondered if the ladder needs to be tested since North Conway Fire Department had it tested in November and it received a good review. Roberts said such a review isn't necessary, but thought the board wanted a thorough inspection of the vehicle, including the ladder and all of the mechanicals."I've heard good reports on the ladder," Doug Garland, selectman, said. "I think we're looking for a test that will tell us we have a transmission oil leak or a we have a motor oil leak. I'm worried about how much money we'll need to sink into mechanical costs if any of the oil leaks are serious.""What I was looking for," Selectman Gene Chandler said, "is someone to say, 'You should get at least 10 years or six years of three years out of it...' Maybe we're worrying about nothing, I don't know. If it costs $1,000 (in minor repairs) and it lasts a year that's fine, but if we have to sink $5,000 into it to only get a year it may not be worth it."Roberts said he would set up an appointment with a local mechanic to have him "crawl around it, under it and over it" in order to give the town a ballpark figure on costs to maintain the vehicle. He didn't know if anyone could offer a life expectancy for the truck. "They may not be willing to stick their neck out that far," he said, laughing.North Conway Fire Department received a new 95-foot ladder truck from Ocala, Fla., on Monday.Roberts and former North Conway fireman Dan Noel met with selectmen June 4, and told them about the opportunity to acquire North Conway's old ladder through Morrell's generosity. Noel has been working behind the scenes for the past 18 months trying to secure a home for the truck in Mount Washington Valley."To me," Noel said, "Storyland seemed like a natural. When it opened in 1955 the first ride it ever had was Freddie the Fire Truck... They started out a half century ago and with a fire engine and now as they go into the second half what better thing to do for the town then to give them a fire engine. I approached Jack Mahany at Storyland and he brought the idea to Stoney and said he loved it."In 2002 Ragged Mountain Sales informed North Conway Fire Department it might be able to get as much as $60,000 for the truck at the time, but that means waiting until the right buyer comes along and the precinct could be looking at $10,000 in broker fees for advertising it and all the paperwork that goes with such a sale. "I honestly don't know what we could get for it," North Conway Fire Chief Pat Preece said. "It all depends what the market is like. So far, I've had someone offer $5,000. I think ($15,000) is a very fair offer."Preece said it wouldn't be practical for the department to hold onto the 1978 vehicle and have two ladder trucks. "In an ideal world," he said, "it would be great to have, but it's not cost effective for us... It would be nice to see it stay in the valley so it would serve as another resource."