The Fire Chief presented the department’s capital-improvement plan and emphasized wear-and‑tear on ambulances and other apparatus, the rising costs and long lead times for vehicle delivery, and options to use revolving funds, grants and opportunistic used-vehicle purchases.

On the FY2026 request the chief said the department has signed a contract to purchase a new ambulance and is seeking authorization to use the ambulance revolving fund to pay for it. “That money will come from the revolving account. So it has no impact at all on taxes,” the chief said, describing how ambulance billing flows into the department’s revolving account and how the account is used for EMS expenses and vehicle debt-service. The chief reported the department bills roughly $2,000,000 a year and collects roughly $1,000,000 after allowed-insurer adjustments; about $400,000 of the revolving fund was described as a transfer used to underwrite the department’s budget.

The chief described operational problems that prompted earlier-than-planned replacements: recently one ambulance required about $12,000 in repairs and later suffered a catastrophic engine failure; another needed $23,000 of repairs and then failed. The department temporarily borrowed an ambulance from Maynard and bought a used vehicle from Westborough for $7,500 plus about $12,000 of repairs to keep the fleet operating while a new rig finished final build.

The FY2026 capital requests highlighted at the meeting were the ambulance (a project-size figure the chief described as $550,000) and a townwide purchase of PFAS-reduced turnout gear for all firefighters, estimated at $165,000. The chief said the turnout-gear request was driven by Select Board feedback that all members of the department should receive the same level of new protective gear; the department is seeking federal and state grants (for example, Assistance to Firefighters Grants and AFG/SAFER/Department of Fire Services grants) to offset gear costs and may receive partial awards.

Committee members asked about payment timing, trade-ins and warranty/delivery risks. The chief described the practice of locking a vehicle price by signing purchase paperwork ahead of town-meeting approval so the town can secure price and queue position with long vendor lead times (he cited deliveries of more than two years in some cases and recent examples of vehicles delayed). He said vendors typically honor the price locked on the purchase order unless the town requests a change order.

The chief also reviewed the department’s longer-term capital needs including engine and crew-vehicle replacements and a proposed program to standardize ambulances and stabilize replacement schedules. He described other funding sources explored, including state and federal grants, regional collaborations and donations.

Why it matters: Ambulance service directly affects emergency response and the financing method — using the department’s revolving ambulance fund vs. general-tax borrowing — affects how the capital purchase is paid for and whether it alters property-tax impacts. The committee discussed clarifying the exact FY2026 request amounts, the revolving-fund balance, and the delivery timeline before recommending articles to town meeting.