The Fredonia Board of Trustees is set to increase its stable of lawyers.

Lippes Mathias law firm of Buffalo got the nod, Trustee Jon Espersen said at a board workshop last week.

Village officials stressed that Fredonia’s current law firm of record, Webster Szanyi, will still get retained.

Espersen said the village received items from two firms when it put out a Request for Proposals on additional legal representation. “One was at a really high rate that we need to cross off our list,” he said.

However, Lippes Mathias’ proposal “was commensurate with what our current attorneys are costing us now. And (Treasurer) Erlyssa (LeBeau) let us know today that our fees are going up,” Espersen continued. “I would like to move ahead and put (Lippes Mathias) in our bullpen and draft a contract specifically stating that they will be used upon full vote of the Board of Trustees, or we will be using the attorney of record.

“I just want to explain to the general public that there’s no change in the attorneys that we’re using,” said Mayor Michael Ferguson. “Many communities have multiple attorneys in their arsenal — some (have) many, many. These attorneys do not receive anything from us unless we use them. So it’s just adding additional legal representation to our vendors.”

A resolution will be prepared for the trustees’ next regular meeting to confirm Lippes Mathias’ addition.