OXFORD — The town will be without its tower firetruck for at least six weeks while its faulty engine is replaced.

The Board of Selectmen on Thursday approved the lowest bid of $73,304 to put a re-manufactured engine in the town’s tower truck.

The bid by Big Rig Shop of Oxford, a diesel truck and trailer repair shop owned by Selectman Floyd Thayer, was about $20,000 less than a bid by Power Products of Portland.

Thayer, who was elected to the board Tuesday, abstained from voting on the contract award.

Selectman Scott Hunter, an Auburn firefighter and former Oxford fire chief, said he preferred to award the bid to an outfit that would provide a warranty for both parts and labor. Big Rigs’ bid included only a warranty for parts.

Fire Chief Wayne Jones said Friday that metal fibers were found in the oil of the 1992 ladder truck’s engine. The truck is currently at Power Products in Portland, which is the dealer for the truck’s Detroit Diesel engine. It will be shipped back to Oxford where it will be worked on.

While the town is without its tower truck, Jones said he has reached out to other towns such as Auburn, Bridgton, Naples and Paris to inform them of the possible need to call on their ladder trucks. The ladder on Norway’s tower truck is currently out of service, he said.

Because the town has a four-story hotel and buildings such as the Robinson Manufacturing plant where a ladder is needed to fight fires, it’s important to get Oxford’s truck back on line quickly and have a backup plan in place while it’s out of service, Jones said.

In other business, the board approved a health insurance buyout program for employees who get 100 percent of their insurance premiums paid by the town.

The amount being offered is the equivalent of four months of what a full-time employee is offered annually for premiums. It’s currently $81.91 per month, but will change annually as the health insurance premiums change.

Owens said the cost is less than other town buyback programs, but one resident pointed out that others towns don’t pay 100 percent of their employee health insurance premiums.

The board also discussed a problem at the Transfer Station where a trash hauler has been dumping trash that not only comes from Oxford residents but also from Norway and Paris. The hauler will be told to stop the practice.

In other news, the board agreed to:

• Take $11,500 out of the Capital Improvement Fund to have ecomaine install air conditioning in the Recreation Department building;

• Write off $10,520 in noncollectible tax-acquired property from mobile homes that were taxed but were removed;

• Have Town Manager Derek Goodine look into the history of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System’s offering to municipal employees and, specifically, the original intent of the 1974 offer; and

• Buy a water pump to ensure the field at Pismo Beach is watered before lack of watering kills the field. The water pump has been out of service since last fall.

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