Shawn Buckley is one of the few local firefighters who had the opportunity to use the department’s aging ladder truck – now out of service and set to be sold off – during an actual fire.

His one complaint: the ladder is designed to hold a weight of 250 pounds or less. Despite being one of the self-described “smaller guys” in the department, Buckley said with all of his equipment on he weighed more than the ladder was designed to carry.

“Besides that, it worked great,” he said.

According to Lt. John Ignatowicz, the town purchased the 30-year-old emergency vehicle about four years ago with a partial donation from the community’s firefighters association. Without space available to store the ladder truck inside the town’s fire station, the vehicle had to be kept out in the elements.

Four years of New England weather has left the truck rusting and in need of repairs, he said. “It’s a fairly old truck, but it’s in great shape. At least it was until being left outside,” Ignatowicz said. “Just like anything else, the more mechanical parts you have, the worse it is not to be used and left sitting outside.”

Ignatowicz estimated that the cost of repairing the brakes and the other mechanical problems that have plagued the vehicle was under $10,000, but still too much for the department to afford. About a year ago the department took it out of service and it has been stored outside in the back of the station ever since, he said.

“All of the departments in the last couple of years have been feeling the pinch of tight money. It was just because of the logistics to keep it going it was taken out of service,” Ignatowicz said.

According to Town Administrator Thomas Gaydos, discussion about what to do with the vehicle began about two years ago when Michael Walker, the fire chief at that time, told him that the department did not have the funds available to certify the ladder truck.

Though it was never a high priority, Gaydos said the question of what to do with the vehicle has recently resurfaced.

“It was certified when we bought it, but over the next couple of years we realized that to run it and keep it certified was going to cost more money and the budgets were getting tighter and tighter,” Gaydos said.

“It’s a piece of equipment we’re going to get rid of and the question is ‘how?’” The last time the town disposed of an emergency vehicle, they put it on eBay and sold it to a group out of Mexico, according to Gaydos.

Whether the town will take the same approach this time around has yet to be decided. Gaydos said the proceeds from the sale will be split evenly between the town and the firefighters association.

According to Ignatowicz, the vehicle was rarely used during an actual emergency and despite being taken out of service and put on the auction block, the town still receives mutual aid from surrounding communities with operational ladder trucks.

“It did work at a few fires, and it was great besides the fact of it being an old truck,” he said.