Got a hankering for heritage and the ability to tow a truck? The Village of Harrison wants you to take the 1941 fire truck off its hands.
The non-operational fire truck is parked in Harrison’s public works yard, a place it has occupied for many years. But now Tourism Harrison has asked the village if it can store their lights for this year’s Lights on Lake display in the works yard — and with the fire truck in the way, there simply isn’t room.
So the village is putting the truck up for sale, and hoping someone will take it for its heritage value.
“It may be of interest to a collector, one would hope, for the interest of restoration,” CAO Madeline McDonald said.
The historic truck was donated to the village after serving as one of the main trucks for the Harrison Fire Department for years — long after more modern options became available for emergency responders.
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Mayor Leo Facio recalled a family member coming to visit him “many, many years ago.”
“They saw this fire truck coming down the road, and they said ‘Oh that’s nice, the village put this on for the visitors as a show’,” Facio said. “It was actually going to a fire.”
Since then, the truck has been sitting in the village works yard. In the past several years, Harrison had driven it in parades or brought it out to special events. However, the vehicle has deteriorated so much that it is no longer road-worthy, and spends all its time sitting under a tarp in the yard.
“It’s out of doors, it’s continuing to be damaged by weathering, even though it’s covered by a tarp, and we just don’t have any other storage facility for this artifact,” McDonald said.
Bidding will close on Jan. 24. The village hopes to have the truck out of the yard by the end of the month to make room for the lights.
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