Fire truck in Meredith This morning?
 

So why was the BIG truck spraying water out into the lake this morning?
Tying up traffic as everyone was rubbernecking to see it.:rolleye2:

Must be trying to raise the lake's level a little bit. :p

That 100' aerial tower truck cost the town about $900,000 and since buying it two years ago, it has never been needed at a real fire yet, not even once. So, they need to run a water spray test every now and then, just to make sure that it does in fact actually work!

You mean they don't send it to routine medical calls like they do in many cities?

No, the Meredith fire engines do not do medical service calls as far as I know. Meredith has an on-call or volunteer style fire department as opposed to neighboring Laconia, a city of 17000 people, which has a paid, full time fire staff. The Town of Meredith, population about 5500, has an annual contract with www.stewartsambulance.com, which has its' home location in Meredith behind the Meredith Village Savings Bank in the shopping mall on Rt 104 that used to be home to the former Jackson Star supermarket.

Just a few days ago, I happen to be buying gasoline right next to a Stewart's Ambulance that was fuel'n up at the Meredith Irving Station so I chatted up the two Stewart's Ambulance employees and here's what I learned.

For the Town of Meredith, Stewart's Ambulance will go to a Meredith address and provide some medical aid at that location for no fee to the injured or sick. Stewart's charges for TRANSPORTING the injured or sick to a medical facility such as Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia, and Stewart's has two levels of transport fee rates which can be considered either general transport or acute transport. Maybe I'm wrong on this as the two ambulance drivers were reluctant to talk with me when it came to talking price but it seemed like five hundred dollars is the basic ala carte price for their general ambulance transport say to the LRGH emergency room in Laconia.

All things considered, it's definitely cheaper to just stay healthy!:D;)

And coincidentally, the board of five Meredith selectmen who negotiate the Stewart's Ambulance service contract for the Town of Meredith; all five selectmen get medical insurance coverage included with their selectman's position.