By Rachel Goff
Grants can provide towns with a lot of financial assistance, but only if they get their applications in complete and on time.
Early last month, Moretown fire chief Steve Smith came before the Moretown Select Board asking that an article be added to Town Meeting asking voters to approve the spending of up to $275,000 for the purchase of a new tanker truck.
At the time, Smith expected a new tanker truck would cost about $225,000, but this Monday, December 1, Smith returned to the board with—per their request—updated price estimates for three vehicles. The least expensive of those, at $194,000, is "pretty much the perfect truck for the fire department and the town," Smith said, explaining that "if we get [it], we won't need another truck for 10 years, unless something drastic happens."
The tanker truck that the department is looking to replace is from 1986 and is "in rough shape," Smith said. Once it was replaced, he planned to put it out to bid, Smith said, because "I wouldn't dare put a price on it."
While the board agreed the department needs a new vehicle, it was hesitant to go ahead with the article. Right now, Moretown Volunteer Fire Department is eligible for funding from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program, but applications are due Friday, December 5, and as of Monday Smith had yet to gather all of the information the department needs to complete the grant application.
"I don't know if it could be done now," town administrator Cheryl Brown said, meaning Moretown will likely lose out on $200,000 of federal money that could cover the cost of a new vehicle. According to Brown, "Tanker trucks had a 68 percent chance of getting a grant on this go-around," she said.
"We were really counting on this grant," select board chair Tom Martin told Smith, expressing disappointment that the department did not have all of the information for the grant application ready. Brown told Smith about the grant in early November, so "It's not like it's something that just came up," Martin said.
And so, while Smith and the town planned to do everything they could to have the information ready on time, Moretown will likely have to wait until the next grant cycle in six months to apply for funding for a new tanker truck. Without applying for funding, the town will not go ahead with the article at Town Meeting this year, Martin explained, as the board wants to be able to come before voters and say, "We did everything we could not to have to request this money," he said.
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