An error was made in the 2021 proposed budget in the city of Dunkirk for the police department. A lease account marked $50,000 for new vehicles was shorted $7,000 by mistake.

“The mayor has had me on a program of two cars a year and I’ve been buying the extended service contracts so our maintenance costs should start to go down,” Police Chief Dave Ortolano said at a budget review meeting. “When I spoke originally with the mayor (Wilfred Rosas), we talked about that line and it was a mistake, that that wasn’t what it was supposed to be. He told me that he’d put that money back in.”

The $57,000 will cover leases for a couple of cars as well as fund a new SUV that the unit needs.

“We’ve been on a replacement plan of two cars a year which the last two years has done us wonders,” Ortolano said. “What that allows us to do is replace our cars every three years instead of every six years and the mileage instead of 300,000 is 100,000 to 150,000 miles, and with the extended services that gets us to 125,000 miles so that covers the majority of our major expenses. I understand that with budgets being tight the way that they are one car next year we can do, hopefully the following year we can go back to the two car rotation; there’s better trade in value, lower maintenance costs.”

Ortolano’s plan for 2021 is the new SUV, which will replace a 4-year-old car; that car will then transition over to the canine officer replacing a 12-year-old vehicle.

See SUV, Page A5

Ortolano added his appreciation to the mayor and Marsha Beach, fiscal affairs officer, and all of the council for putting the money back in, he also further thanked Jason Schrantz of the city garage for all the work he puts into transitioning the cars for the department.

“Most vehicles in police departments are contracted out, he changes our radios, our computers, the cages, he does the complete change out and saves us about $3,000 to $4,000 per vehicle per year,” Ortolano shared.