After some reworking to make sure all goes as planned, Alna selectmen have set in motion a deal to roll one of the town’s loans into another.

The process has involved multiple parties and a twist in how the purchase plays out for a new fire truck. It will be a lease-to-own arrangement while a company is building the truck, officials said. The next time the town makes a major buy, it might be better to word the town meeting question differently, or to try to arrange a different deal than the one worked out for the truck, selectmen said.

“Think we could have outsmarted ourselves on this one?” Second Selectman Jonathan Villeneuve said to fellow board members on May 12.

Selectmen on Monday reviewed a change in how the process plays out, and further advice from a lawyer, before they agreed to send out a $163,000 check. The town saved up the money for years to put toward the truck buy.

The deal lets the town pay off the approximately $122,000 left on a Damariscotta Bank & Trust loan for the addition to the fire station. Instead, the town will have a larger loan than it otherwise would have had for the truck. The new loan is at 2.7 percent interest, compared to the 4.8 percent the town was paying on the loan for the addition, town officials said.

Owing the money at a lower interest rate will save the town $6,000 to $7,0000, First Selectman David Abbott said.

About $41,000 of the $163,000 check will begin to pay off the new loan, officials said.

Monday’s meeting was called after the board on May 7 decided it needed more information.

“I didn’t realize it would entail this much,” Abbott said at the May 7 meeting. Part of that night’s discussion centered on discerning each party’s role in handling the town’s money, the new loan and the truck.

Selectmen had learned the deal would require cutting a $163,000 check by May 14, and sending it off before the loan is paid off for the addition to the fire station. Board members said the time gap would likely be short and trouble-free, but that the town needed safeguards in case something did go wrong.

“I’m not signing until I feel comfortable,”  Villeneuve said on May 7.

By Monday night, the deal had been reworked to address the issue. The cashing of the check that goes to a Kansas lender will mean the older loan has been paid off, selectmen said.