Alna's new loan for a fire truck is helping the town save money on its older loan, for the addition to the fire station.

The Damariscotta Bank & Trust loan for the addition has five years left on it, at 4.8 percent interest, town officials said; but the rate is about to improve, under a different lender, First Selectman David Abbott said.

Selectmen agreed April 10 to blend in the $121,000 left on that loan, with the new, $132,000 one the town is taking out from a Midwest bank that does fire truck loans, Abbott said.

That will lower the interest rate on the money still owed for the addition; it will be 2.7 percent, for five years, the same deal voters agreed to in March for the truck loan, Abbott said.

“It's going to help us out a great deal,” saving the town thousands of dollars in interest, he said.

The idea of combining the loans was Abbott's, but he said it stemmed from another idea the Midwest bank had first: Pay off the station loan by tapping the $163,000 the town has saved up toward the truck.

A change in how that money is spent would have taken a town meeting. But no new town vote is needed to instead borrow a total of $253,000, including $121,000 to pay off the older loan and the rest to buy the truck, Abbott said.

The $163,000 already put away for the truck will cover the rest of its $295,000 cost, Abbott said.

The loan with Damariscotta Bank & Trust has no penalty for early payoff, he said.

The selectmen's decision marks at least the second time the town has lightened the interest on its debt for the fire station addition. In January 2013, selectmen praised then-treasurer Honora Perkins for negotiating the interest rate down about two percent.