Fredonia Fire Chief Joshua Myers advocated for creation of a fire district at a village Board of Trustees meeting.

Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson and Fire Chief Joshua Myers want the village to start a new fire district.

Each man spoke briefly on the subject at Tuesday’s Board of Trustees meeting. Neither specified the nearby departments they want to join the district.

Ferguson said that on May 19, he joined Trustee Jon Espersen and Myers in Mayville to discuss a potential Fredonia fire district with Noel Guttman, county emergency services coordinator. They talked about “how other communities have banded together to form fire districts, combining communities’ manpower and eliminating redundancies in things like equipment, processes and procedures,” Ferguson said.

“We’re going to have more on this as talks continue,” the mayor promised.

Myers had earlier brought up the subject during his report time. “The Fredonia Fire Department already collaborates closely with our mutual aid partners every single day. The cooperation is there, we just need the structure to match,” he said. “Let’s take down the imaginary borders and build something unified, efficient and sustainable so we can continue doing what matters most, protecting the community and everyone in it.”

Myers’ fire district proposal came at the end of an approximately 10-minute speech in which he defended the Fredonia Fire Department against criticism about its finances.

“I am fully aware of the unfair finger-pointing at our fire department,” he declared. “The recent wave of negative attention posed by a member of this board (Trustee Michelle Twichell) last meeting, calling the department ‘the elephant in the room,’ has not gone unnoticed. It weighs heavily on me and all of us who serve the Fredonia Fire Department.”

He later noted that “When municipalities find themselves financially challenged like us here in Fredonia, the finger-pointing starts.” Myers continued, “Unfortunately, this unhealthy cycle started a few months ago when (Police) Chief (David) Price pointed the finger at the fire department, stating because of the fire department, the rest of the departments — I would imagine referring to his own — would have to go without.”

The fire chief claimed that fire department expenses are up 3% in the last 10 years while police department expenses are up 30%. “Referring to the fire department as the elephant in the room feels unfair when the numbers tell a different story,” Myers said.

Myers said he was proud of his fire department team and said they “should not be the target for misplaced criticism.” That led into his fire district proposal.