Georgetown, meet your new aerial ladder fire truck. It's a 2007 Ferrara, and it will be on display at Central Fire Station, 47 Central St., on Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. There are plenty of important details to notice about this new truck, some of which are immediately visible, while others are not so obvious.

All of them, however, are familiar to Capt. Rusty Ricker, because he and firefighter Jeff Manning conducted the research that led to the purchase. Unlike passenger cars, fire trucks are built to order and this one, according to Ricker, was "a labor of love." After gathering the facts, Ricker presented them to the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee, showed the department's need at Town Meeting and, with approval secured, put out bids.

"We were allotted $750,000 by the town," Ricker said, "but came in at $622,000." The department didn't spend a penny more than it had to, but Ricker made sure the department, and therefore the town, got exactly what it needed. "We were able to build the truck we needed to build," Ricker said.

The Georgetown Fire Department's previous aerial ladder was bought used in 1998. It was built in 1980 and had previously belonged to the Manchester, N.H., Fire Department. It was hoped it would last another 15 years, but after only eight years, an inspection showed that the torque box | "the turntable at the base of the ladder," Ricker explained | was detached from the truck's frame. It was the last straw for a truck that was often out of service.

The new truck has a larger gear box than the old truck, allowing firefighters to store more ground ladders, forcible entry tools, ventilation tanks and special response team equipment | which is typically gear for working through difficult angles. The old truck's tip load | the amount of weight it supported at its extended end | was only 250 pounds which, Ricker says, was equivalent to his own weight when he is wearing his gear. The new ladder has a 750-pound tip load while flowing 1,250 gallons. A pipe feeds water along the ladder to a nozzle which, in the new truck, can be maneuvered by remote controls. In the old truck, firemen worked the nozzle remotely with a pair of ropes.

Ricker also points to historical touches that bring the new technology in line with firefighting tradition. The truck's very name, Hook and Ladder One, alludes to earlier firefighting days, when tottering walls were pulled down with grapple hooks. The siren from the first ladder that served in Georgetown will be remounted on the new Ferrara, and a 19th-century fire department logo has been re-designed and will be affixed in the cab's back window.

Sunday's open house will feature light refreshments, fire prevention giveaways, and "a lot of history on display," Ricker said, including "some surprise stuff that hasn't seen the light of day for years."