Fredonia chief urges trustees to restore fire and EMS budget items for PPE, training and equipment

Chief Myers presented a detailed review of the village’s fire and emergency medical services budget, describing where the department’s actual revenue and projected collections differ and asking trustees to restore selected capital and training funding.

Myers told trustees the department’s operating cost for career staffing, fire, advanced EMS response and civil defense totals about $1,587,000. He said “our revenue was $1,109,519,” and that after accounting for that income the net operating cost for career fire and EMS is about $477,481. Myers and staff distinguished “hard revenue” (amounts actually received) from projections and said EMS collections for calendar-year 2024 totaled $556,074 against a prior projection of $800,000. Based on recent collections and an October rate increase, Myers recommended a more conservative projection of $550,000 for next year while acknowledging any revenue projection is inherently uncertain: “I can't make people pay their bills, nor can the board of trustees,” he said.

The chief walked trustees through proposed capital requests and line-item changes in the draft budget. Key requests and points raised…