By Ruth Melville

In January 2015, the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD) presented the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance with a request for $125,000 to buy a new utility truck. The Board of Finance denied the full request, but it did give the NVFD $20,000, and the department chipped in $26,000 more from its own funds.

After spending several months last year researching truck prices and options, the department decided to use the $46,000 they had available to buy a new cab and an F-550 chassis, which arrived this past January. This new truck will be a squad truck, which is primarily used to carry personnel and specialized rescue equipment.

A welcome feature of the new cab is that it is a four-door, which can hold two or three people in the back. The added passenger room means both that more personnel can go along on rescues, and that more citizens can be transported when necessary, for example, to a warming facility.

Thanks in part to strong response to their annual appeal, the department decided at their monthly meeting in January to go ahead and buy a new body for the F-550, which will cost $25,000 and should be here in April. The final step, which will cost about $15,000, is to install lights and sirens and paint on the lettering and striping. The NVFD hopes to unveil the new Squad 20 during the Memorial Day celebrations in May.

But what about the original request for a utility truck? Here’s where some clever repurposing comes in. The department’s old utility truck, a 1995 Dodge that has become outmoded, will be repurposed into a brush truck. To keep costs manageable, the NVFD is going to mount a flat-bed body onto it and use the brush-fire tank and pump from their now 27-year-old F-350 brush truck, which will be then retired from service and sold.

“The goal is to meet changing needs,” says Fire Chief Matt Ludwig, “and in the long run, there will be cost savings.” Ludwig adds that department is grateful for the town’s continuing generosity. “We couldn’t do any of this without the support of the community.”

Photo courtesy of the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department.