A Fleet Of 101 Vehicles Keeps Newtown Rolling

By Steve Bigham

The town’s large fleet of registered motor vehicles now numbers 101, according to the latest inventory at the highway department.

But the town’s “rolling stock” was not always so impressive. The Town of Newtown did not really need vehicles for many years. Years ago, the roads were mainly dirt and there was less emphasis on major road reconstruction. Police protection was provided by the state with the help of a few constables who did drive town cars. The Newtown Police Department, however, was not formed until 1971.

The Parks and Recreation Department was not formed until the early 1970s and land use, building, and health departments only began using cars and trucks within the past 25 years.

Fire trucks, no doubt, were among the first in the town’s fleet, particularly those from Hook & Ladder, the town’s oldest fire company. Those vehicles –– bought in the late 1800s –– were actually hand drawn carriages with water pumps.

Longtime Hook & Ladder firefighter Lee Glover remembers the old pump being hooked on to the back of an old Model A car and pulled to the scenes of a fire.

The public works department has been around for a long time, but it did not begin building up a fleet of plows and trucks until after World War II, according to Town Historian Dan Cruson.

“Town-owned vehicles are pretty much a post-World War II phenomenon. If they had anything before that, it wasn’t much,” Mr Cruson said.

Up until the 1930s, workers with shovels would be dropped off at a section of roadway to clear snow following a storm. For days, roads would be closed to any sort of travel. Of course, there were few people who lived here in town.

Mr Glover recalls in the 1930s the highway department shared the building behind Edmond Town Hall with Hook & Ladder.

“They had one town truck –– a dump truck. The first selectman, Stanly Blackman, used to drive it. They may have had a tractor, too,” Mr Glover recalled.

“There were probably some town-owned horses at one time. I’ve seen old pictures in The Bee of guys with a horse pulling a plow,” recalled First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.

Speaking of the first selectman, the position was not issued a town vehicle until 1968 when the town agreed to give Francis J. Hiney a second-hand car to use. He and his wife owned just one car and he did not want to leave her stranded at home all day.

Mae Schmidle claims the Newtown Visiting Nurses Association (VNA) may have operated one of the first town-owned cars. The VNA was started in 1918.

“There were very few cars on the road back then and there was very little accessibility to a nurse, so the town and the VNA provided an automobile for the nurse,” Mrs Schmidle explained.

Former first selectman Rod Mackenzie made headlines in the late 1980s when it was learned he had town tires put on his own car. Rod had apparently chosen not to use the town-issued car and, since he was using his own car, felt it was appropriate to have the highway department fix his car. Some felt his decision was warranted. Others did not.

Former First Selectman Bob Cascella made the news soon after being elected when he refused to operate Zita McMahon’s car. Mrs McMahon, whom Mr Cascella had just defeated in the election, had been a smoker and the new first selectman did not want to drive a smokey car.

During his first few years in office, Mr Rosenthal operated a Crown Victoria formerly used by the Newtown police. That car was traded in for a Jeep Cherokee four-wheel drive SUV, which Mr Rosenthal says is much more practical.

During the 2001-02 fiscal year, the town’s “rolling stock” burned 151,000 gallons of diesel fuel (at 86.5 cents per gallon) and 56,000 gallons of gasoline (at 93.5 cents per gallon). So why so much diesel? Probably because the town fills up the tanks of the approximately 40 diesel-driven school buses, although the buses are owner-operated. Also, all the snowplows and other heavy equipment run on diesel. All diesel and gasoline usage is tracked using a system called “Gas Boy.”

All town vehicles fill up their tanks at the highway department. Town and state vehicles are exempt from gas taxes.

The town owns 17 fire trucks, 30 police cars, and three ambulances. In addition, the highway department has 59 vehicles, including pickups, dump trucks, pavers, loaders, mowers, etc. Parks and Recreation uses nine vehicles and Board of Education maintenance has ten. The building department has four vehicles, health has three, planning and zoning two, conservation one, and assessors office one.

All of these vehicles are serviced in-house at the highway department. There, Joe Hennigan, Tim Whelan, Ben Elkins, Rick Orten, and Glenn Miller are charged with keeping these cars and trucks out on the road. The town has the entire fleet on a maintenance schedule to ensure that each vehicle has a long life. Each police car is brought in once a month for service and a tune up.

“Everything is kept track of on a computer. The key is reliability,” explained Public Works Director Fred Hurley.

Since 1975, Paul Tani of Public Works has been in charge of keeping vehicles on the road. Mr Tani says he will match his staff against anyone.

“They can fix anything. We do fire trucks, ambulances, police cars. We do it all here,” he said.

Bodywork on cars and trucks is subcontracted.

Police cars are purchased through state bids, ensuring the lowest price possible. Other vehicles are purchased through a sealed bid.

The next big challenge for the fleet is the requirement for alternative fuels, as well as other environmental issues.

“How that impacts us is the town’s next big motor vehicle challenge,” Mr Hurley said.