MAPLETON, Maine — Before last week’s snow storm arrived in Aroostook County, the towns of Mapleton, Castle Hill, and Chapman acquired a new snowplow.
The plow truck arrived on Thursday, Nov. 10, and had a radio installed the following day.
The new snow plow is a 2023 Western Star purchased for $219,225 on Tuesday, Nov. 8, and is an addition to the fleet of four plow trucks. The plow truck was purchased from Freightliner in Fort Kent and included a $15,000 trade-in for the old 2000 plow truck for a total cost of $204,225.
“We rollover our equipment anywhere between an 18- to 20-year lifespan, so we were due for a new plow truck; our last one was purchased in 2000,” said Sandra Fournier, town manager of Mapleton, Castle Hill, and Chapman.
Mapleton is in an interlocal agreement with the towns of Castle Hill and Chapman with all three towns benefiting from the use of the new plow truck. The interlocal agreement between the three towns is the only one in the state of Maine, according to Fournier.
When the joint board of the three towns met in January 2022 they decided to set money aside for reserve accounts from money collected from taxes in the towns for a replacement schedule on future replacements of equipment.
“Our plow trucks take the biggest deterioration because they are so well used all year round, but they also handle corrosive materials such as our salt mixture that we have to use,” Fournier said.
The towns had $250,000 to work with in the reserve accounts to purchase a new plow truck and have around $40,000 left in the reserve accounts after the plow truck purchase.
“I think it’s going to be a nice addition to our fleet, we have a pretty nice fleet out here now and this adds to it,” said Road Commissioner Chris Woodworth.
Then at the March 2022 annual Chapman town meeting approved the Chapman Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club, to go into a loan agreement of $53,757 with the town for a purchase of a groomer.
The Ridgerunners received a US Department of Agriculture Rural Business Development grant and a State of Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Bureau of Parks and Lands Snowmobile Program grant for a combined total of $127,243 that went towards a groomer that costs around $281,000.
The older groomer used by the Chapman Ridge Runners was sold for $100,000, with the groomer arriving in the next few weeks but a date couldn’t be provided due to overseas shipping issues.
Ownership for property in real estate or personal property is owned by Mapleton, Castle Hill, and Chapman and divided by an operating budget for each town.
