By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

MILLVILLE — Fire Chief John Mullaly’s request for a new $355,000 fire engine will have to be put on the back burner after the spending proposal failed to recieve a two-thirds majority vote at a special town meeting Monday night.

The fire truck article was the only money-related article that was debated and voted on at last night's meeting. All the others were stricken from the warrant due to the fact that the town's Finance Committee, which typically makes recommendations on spending articles, has shrunk to only two members - neither of which were seated at the empty table to the right of the town moderator's podium.
A total of 34 of the 60 or so voters attending the meeting voted in favor of the fire truck article, while 26 voters voted against it. A two-thirds majority vote is required on all spending articles therefore the article failed.
Mullaly had requested that voters authorize selectmen to spend $355,000 on the new truck to replace the department's aging Engine 1, which is nearly 25 years old and virtually rotting away, according to the chief.
To pay for the vehicle, the article sought $165,000 from the town's capital planning account and $100,000 from ambulance receipts. The balance of $90,000 would have been borrowed through a bond issue.
Mullaly, who was supported in his request by Selectmen Charlie Poulin, Jackie Lima and John Laura, argued in favor of buying the new truck before the end of the year, saying the town would realize a savings of approximately $30,000 because after Jan. 1 new fire regulations would mean added features would have to be added to the truck, which would increase the cost of the vehicle.
More importantly, the chief said, is the safety factor. The department's current 1984 Engine 1 is literally rotting away.
“The doors are rotting out. The cab is rotting. This engine is 24 years old and it's falling apart,” he told voters.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Paul Savage and Vice Chairman Tom Petrowicz argued against the purchase and echoed concerns by former Finance Committee Chairman Gerry Labonte and Town Accountant Marilyn Mathieu who believe that based on the town's current financial condition and the talk of a 10 percent cut in state local aid next year, now might not be the best time to be spending money on big-ticket items.
“If we're looking at a 10 percent cut in local aid next year that's $50,000 a year we're going to have to make up for somewhere else,” Mathieu told voters.
Savage wanted the fire truck article stricken from the warrant like the other money-articles, but voters in a 31-28 secret ballot vote agreed to debate and vote on the article, which ended up being defeated because of the lack of the two-thirds majority vote.
Within minutes after the town meeting kicked off, resident and Highway Surveyor John Dean made the motion to postpone all money-related articles until the vacancies on the Finance Committee are filled. But Town Moderator Joseph Kelleher failed to entertain the moton and suggested, instead, that voters take each article one at a time and then vote on whether or not to strike it from the warrant.
The table to Kelleher's left as you face the stage at the Millville Elementary School is typically where the members of the Finance Committee sit. The selectmen sit at the table on the other side of the moderator. Last night, the FinCom table was empty.
With the resignation of veteran Finance Committee Chairman Labonte last month and longtime member Leo Trottier effective last Sunday, the board lacks a quorum — only members Mary Ryan and Sheri Delisle remain on the committee as of today. There had been no meetings held in preparation for the town meeting last night and no future meetings are likely to be held until the vancancies are filled By Kelleher.
The Finance Committee cannot meet because a legal quorum is necessary to conduct a meeting. A legal quorum is three of the five committee members. The committee's fifth member, Steve Tringali, left the board over the summer to take a position on the Blackstone-Millville Regional School Committee.

Trottier said last week that he resigned because of professional reasons and a new job. Labonte said he didn’t want to get into specifics as to the reason why he resigned. “I’ve always said that I wouldn’t want to do this anymore if it ever got personal or political or if we, as a committee, were impeded from doing our jobs,” he said last week.
The resignations of Labonte and Trottier follow the Board of Selectmen’s unanimous vote in October to deny the Finance Committee’s request to seek legal advise from the town’s attorney over issues related to the Fire Department budget.

Labonte said he wanted a legal clarification on Mullaly’s stated opinion that the chief has the right to exceed his budget by any amount of money in order to run his department, an opinion Labonte says is not shared by the Finance Committee. That issue seems to have arisen out of Mullaly’s request to allow Special Town Meeting voters to vote on the fire truck article.
The Finance Committee was not in favor of supporting the article and Mathieu had suggested putting it off until the spring because of concerns the town didn’t have enough money to pay for it.

Despite those concerns, the selectmen voted 4 to 2 on Nov. 3 to allow Mullaly to seek bids for the truck and place the financial article for the vehicle on the warrant for last night.