Alna Fire Chief Mike Trask plans to ask March town meeting voters for a new fire truck, projected to cost at least $278,000. The money would come from a loan and a fund the town has been building up annually for the next truck.

Trask announced last year he would seek a new truck this year. It would replace two aging vehicles, a 1972 Dodge that has been carrying rescue equipment the new truck can carry; and a 1986 pumper, Trask said in an interview February 25.

An added feature to help put out fires would bring up the price, to as high as $328,000, Trask said. But later this week, he hopes to have a lower cost for that feature, a “compressed air foam system.”

The system is more effective than using water alone, and has several benefits, Trask said. Less water used means less property damage; a quicker knock-down of a fire also makes it easier to determine a fire's cause and to get firefighters inside a building to locate any victims, he said.

If voters approve a truck at the annual town meeting March 22, it will be on order for about a year, Trask said.

Voters will have three options regarding the truck request, Trask said. As it stands now, the first would tap the $163,000 the town has set aside in recent years toward the purchase, and take out a five-year, $165,000 loan at an interest rate of 2.79 percent; getting the truck without the foam system would mean using the $163,000 on reserve along with a $115,000 loan with the same terms; or, instead of buying a truck this year, voters can consider raising another $35,000 toward a future buy of a fire truck, he said.

Trask reiterated that the price for the truck with the foam system could still come down in time for a lower loan figure to appear on the town meeting warrant.

Selectmen on February 20 decided to put the truck questions on the town meeting warrant without a recommendation from them on what voters should decide, First Selectman David Abbott said February 25.