Corinne Ingraham, chief of the South Royalton Rescue Squad, has announced the squad’s pur­chase of a new ambulance.

The new ambulance is an Osage Ambulance being pur­chased from Cromwell Emer­gency Vehicles out of Cromwell, N.Y. The new vehicle cost is $161,825 with the old ambu­lance in trade.

Through many years of fund­raising and donations, the South Royalton Fire and Rescue Asso­ciation, Inc. was able to fund half of the purchase, with the remain­ing coming from a bank loan, the cost of which will be added into the res­cue squad budget over the next few years.

Buying the 2011 demonstra­tion model saved the squad nearly $40,000.

“The new 2012 ambulances are running just over $200,000, so that is why we went with a demo,” ex­plained Ingraham.

The squad’s current ambu­lance is a 1997 model, with over 100,000 miles on it, so the Roy­alton Fire District approved the purchase of the 2011 Dodge four-by-four demo ambulance.

The Rescue Squad hopes to take possession of this ambu­lance in the very near future and if it has arrived by Town Meet­ing, it will be on dis­play at that time.