The Village of Saugerties doesn’t have a firm date for delivery of a new fire truck, but trustee Terry Parisian says it’s not too soon for the Village Board to begin planning to upgrade the firehouse to accommodate it.
The Village Board voted at its previous meeting on April 19 to purchase a new fire truck for $932,000. The truck, a Rosenbauer Viper 75 with a mid-mounted 75-foot aerial ladder, is to be purchased from Garrison Fire and Rescue Corp. of Palenville. The planned purchase has been in the works for several months.
One necessity is strengthening the pad at the front of the building to accommodate the weight of the truck, Parisian said. “It’s quite expensive if we’re going to make the whole front of it updated, plus with the weight of the truck going into the firehouse, the slope of the garage needs to be engineered. So I think we need to begin working.” The job may also include putting a heating pad into the concrete.
Mayor Bill Murphy said he had talked to Albert [Riozzi, a contractor] who said the heating element would not be expensive. “Pouring the concrete and setting it would be expensive,” Murphy said. “He would be willing to bid on it.”
Considering the amount of work to be done, it would make sense to do the concrete in front of the office and the upstairs gym “and make it all cohesive,” Parisian said.
“I think it would be a good idea to do it that way [with a heated pad across the office and gym] because it would cut down on the salt and sand coming into the building, said trustee Brian Martin.
“We should find out, hopefully, within the next couple of weeks when the final inspection is. Right now, the truck is in Nebraska getting the aerial put on and then the sales rep from Garrison should be in South Dakota. We should find out shortly when our meeting with them is to go over the final drawings and make sure everything is within our specs,” said Martin.
The truck is slated for delivery in October of next year.
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