The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.
TRENTON—Low water in water sources, dry hydrant failures, and changing land ownership are all factors in not being able to obtain a valuable component of firefighting: water.
As firefighters spray hundreds of gallons of water per minute through a firehose, a fire truck’s tank can empty fast and must be replenished. If that truck can be hooked up to a fire hydrant that is fed from a municipal supply, all is good. However, given the rural nature of much of Maine, firefighters more often then not, have to resort to other water sources, most commonly an existing body of water, whether natural or manmade.
According to Craig Noble, select board member for the Town of Mariaville and safety officer for the Mariaville Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department (which also serves the Town of Otis), who spoke at the August 5 Trenton Select Board meeting, those sources of water are becoming harder to find.
As snow levels and rain fall decrease, water levels fall and often that leaves fire trucks unable to pump from water reservoirs due to not being able to reach the water or the water being too muddy because of decreased depth.
Dry hydrants also seem to be failing more often lately according to Noble.
A common solution to this problem is water cisterns strategically placed throughout a community from which trucks can replenish their tanks, even if means having to transfer that water from one truck to another for fighting fires.
Trenton currently has a 24,000-gallon cistern at the Acadia Gateway Center.
Through community resilience partnership grants, the Town of Mariaville has installed one 14,000-gallon cistern ($50,000 grant) and received funding this spring for a 30,000-gallon cistern ($75,000 grant).
Noble hope to persuade the Trenton Select Board to sign a letter of support for a new grant application to fund a water supply project. The project would be the subject of a new community resilience partnership grant application that would be for geographic information system (GIS) mapping of all of the firefighting water supplies in the Hancock County towns that are community resilience partnership members.
If this mapping was completed and then integrated into the IamResponding (IaR) app, which firefighters use to receive call outs and to show that they are responding to the call, then assisting fire departments could show up to another town’s fire and know right where the water sources are. This is Noble’s overarching ambition for the project in addition to just letting each town map out its own water supplies.
The grant itself would be applied for and administered by the Town of Mariaville because the Mariaville Volunteer Fire/Rescue Department is not a town-run entity. The grant funds would be used to pay for the water source mapping labor and the creation of the GIS map.
While Mariaville could do this project as a standalone community Noble appears to want to engage as many community resilience partnership members as possible to make it a more effective tool.
The Trenton Select Board unanimously voted to have Town Administrator Carol Walsh draft a letter of support to be signed by both the select board chair and the fire chief.
FIRE DEPARTMENT UPDATE
Fire Chief Steve Heckman said that the fire department will hots its third pancake breakfast this Saturday, Aug 16. At this breakfast the department will also have fire extinguisher training for residents.
The fire department was quite busy during the month of July with accidents and assisting other towns with fires, according to Chief Heckman.
Chief Heckman recognized Rachel Malcolm for recently receiving her fire officer two rating.
This week, Chief Heckman will be heading to Scarborough for training for fire protection specialist.
Toward the end of September Chief Heckman and Fire Captain Bill Malcolm will be in Bangor for fire officer three training which will be required if OSHA institutes new standards that have been delayed but are probably coming soon.
SOFTWARE PURCHASE
Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain asked that the select board approve a new software purchase for a Dirigo Permit System.
The system is used for permit tracking, keeping track of inspections, and permit creation among other uses. As select board member Judith Sproule mentioned at the meeting, the software is from a Bangor-based company so the purchase is supporting a Maine based business.
The cost is $2,400 for the first year which includes an $800 initial setup fee. It is then $1,600 per year for subsequent years.
It was not mentioned at the select board meeting, but according to Sproule, the terms of the “purchase of the software is contingent upon Tremont, as a town having similar needs, subscribing for the same services.”
The possible purchase of the same software by the Town of Tremont is on the Tremont Select Board’s agenda for its meeting tonight, August 11.
The Trenton Select Board unanimously voted to support the purchase of the software.
MAINE MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION
Towns in Maine are asked to vote on the election of Maine Municipal Association vice president and executive committee members for the association.
The Trenton Select Board decided that because its members are unfamiliar with the candidates and none of the seats are contested, that they would not vote on the members.
A motion was made not to vote and seconded and passed unanimously.
SELECT BOARD NAME PLATES
The Trenton Select Board recently purchased shiny new desktop name plates for each member and member John Bennett is excited about the addition. Now anyone who attends a select board meeting and is not familiar with the members can put a name to a face and know who their elected town officials are.
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