West Salem Fire Department officials have probably earned the right to say, “I told you so.”

After nearly a year of pleading with members of its governing body to purchase a new tanker truck because the two it owns are unreliable at best, one recently proved just how unreliable it is.

While answering a call for mutual aid on a recent fire in the town of Shelby, the department’s 43-year-old tanker broke down. It was repaired. Then it broke down again. Then it was repaired again. And then it broke down and was repaired once more.

That’s a total of three breakdowns in 24 hours, amounting to $540 in repairs and growing. (Two repairs were for the same issue.)

“We’ve told them that both of those older tankers are unsafe and no one wants to drive them,” said Deputy Chief Greg Hutson.

In April, Hutson and other firefighters, urged the West Salem Fire Protection District Board to get back on track with its equipment replacement cycle.

“We’re behind the eight-ball here with our truck purchases,” Hutson said.

Had the district not veered from its replacement cycle, he said, the department would already have one or two new tankers and would be looking at replacing a pumper truck, which it also needs.

The board tabled the tanker matter at its April meeting, and then tabled it permanently at its next meeting, telling firefighters they’d just have to make do in these tough financial times.

What firefighters have been making do with, for the past 30 or so years, is the 1967 tanker truck the fire protection district inherited from the town of Hamilton when it incorporated and a mid-1970s milk truck with extensive modifications.

In its defense, the voters rejected the board’s bid to exceed its levy limits in order to reconcile its books. The money, they argued, just wasn’t there. Going to the voters again for more money, was not an option.

In 2009, ahead of emission standards changes, the department could have scored a tanker to suit its needs, including some upgrades, for $139,000,

as Hutson proposed in April.

In 2010 the fire district can expect to spend $160,000 for a stock model with the mandatory emission controls installed.

In the wake of the recent breakdowns, the board agreed to allow the fire department to again pursue bids for a new tanker.

“We gave the OK to get something,” said West Salem Trustee Merlin Wehrs. “Whatever they come up with we’ll have to consider.”

The board will take the matter up again at its next quarterly meeting.