Did Santa's Elves Save Middlebury $4000.00 ???

"It seems that when the fire chief wanted to put his antennae on the town owned tower at the town hall the town rightfully wanted guarantees from the vendor that the vendor would not harm the tower. When the vendor refused to give said guarantee the chief had no choice but to call out the huge ladder truck ( it's good to see that we use that $750.000 piece of equipment for something, even if its just for antennae installations ) and hire some elves to put the antennae on the chiming of the town hall"

Wrong again.

In order to install the antenna on the current tower would have required digging a trench from the Town Hall to the tower. This would have been expensive and was not included in Chief Perrotti's Homeland Security Grant. It would have been an added cost to the taxpayers. In consultation with N.E. Communications it was determined that the chimney of the Town Hall would make an ideal location to mount the new antenna.

The new site offered several advantages.  1) There was no need to dig a trench.  2) There was a cost savings, because not as much cable would be required. With less cable, there is also a boost in reception. 3) It is a better location and will actually provide better reception than the existing tower.

So who were these elves?  Not Santa's, and certainly not hired as incorrectly reported above. These were members of the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department who took time out of their holiday weekend to help their town and save the Taxpayers thousands of dollars.  It was a difficult job, and members worked in excess of five hours on the project.  Watertown Fire was called to assist with their platform truck. Middlebury's Truck 1 Aerial Ladder was also used in the operation.  The operation was a success and the MVFD is now one step closer to implementing the new high-band radio system awarded from the almost $300,000 radio grant.