Fredonia Fire Chief Joshua Myers fears the Fredonia Fire Department will run out of money for medical supplies before the end of the village’s fiscal year.

Fredonia’s financial crunch is creating supply funding challenges at the fire department.

Fire Chief Joshua Myers sought a new thermal imaging camera at a Board of Trustees workshop last week, and a resolution to buy the equipment was on the agenda of this week’s trustees meeting.

However, Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony asked for the resolution to get tabled, and trustees agreed. Lazarony said she wanted to speak with Myers about alternate funding sources for the camera.

The resolution would have authorized the purchase of the camera from MES Service Co. of Minneapolis for $3,453.

Myers said at the workshop that money for the camera is in his current budget. While money for that is there, he is concerned about another area: Supplies for emergency medical services.

The chief asked for a $5,000 boost to the budget line for that. He said $15,000 was budgeted for medical supplies, when he asked for $22,000. There is now only $3,000 left for the rest of the village’s fiscal year, which ends in May.

“I’m going to overshoot it,” Myers said of the medical supply line. If more money is not added, “the other option is, park the ambulances. I’m willing to do that as well.”

Myers asked trustees to refrain from moving money from another of his budget lines to boost the medical supply fund. “I’m asking you not to make me do that, because I have to spend that money on what was allocated for that line…I cannot rob Peter to pay Paul here. I don’t know where we’re going to get an extra $5,000. I don’t need it right this second, but we will run out of money in that EMS supply line and I don’t know what to do.”

The remaining $3,000 in his budget will get the fire department through March, Myers predicted. Asked about the need for the supplies, he said it “is driven strictly by call volume.”