Wiscasset will replace its plow truck that a falling tree limb totaled in November. About two dozen voters at a town meeting Dec. 11 agreed to get a truck that will restore the town’s fleet of plow trucks to six. The approximately $150,000 buy will take no new taxes, relying instead on insurance money, leftover from other capital spending and close to $100,000 from the town’s capital equipment reserve account.

No one at Thursday’s vote voiced opposition to the proposal that had the support of both the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee. Wiscasset Road Commissioner Doug Fowler said afterward that he was relieved the vote went as it did. The totaled truck was one of the larger ones in the fleet, so the Public Works Department has had to compensate by making more trips with smaller trucks during storms. “We have missed its sand-carrying capacity,” Fowler said.

“Fortunately, (the storms) haven’t been big monsters,” he said.

Fowler planned to seek bids on Dec. 12 from two dealers with trucks that meet the town’s needs, Portland North Truck Center in Portland and Daigle & Houghton in the Bangor area, he said. He expected the replacement truck to be in town the week of Dec. 15. Fowler said he had checked with dealers around New England and as far away as Minnesota to find the best deal for the town.

Thursday’s town meeting at the municipal building may have been a record short one for Wiscasset, moderator Susan Blagden said. The meeting started just after 7 p.m. and let out at 7:06 p.m. Selectmen’s Vice Chairman Ben Rines commented at one point that it was raining. “It’s going to be snowing,” Blagden said. “We’re going to be needing this truck.”

In making the motion to approve the truck buy, Rines noted that the proposal was recommended by  the selectmen and the Budget Committee. In an interview Dec. 12, Rines said he could have made the motion without referring to those recommendations. But he wanted to acknowledge that the two panels were in agreement, he said. “I was happy that we were on the same page.”

The lone question before the vote was from resident Steve Mehrl, who asked how much the truck would cost. The warrant article broke down the funding sources but didn’t state the $150,000 sum. The biggest chunk, up to $97,139, will come from the town’s capital equipment reserve account; as much as $34,711 will come from money left over after the town bought a dump trunk and completed work on the municipal building’s roof; the remaining $18,500 will come from insurance on the totaled, 1996 truck, town officials have said.