The purchase of a new truck for the Fredonia Department of Public Works is apparently set to get reconsidered.

Trustee Jon Espersen said at a Board of Trustees workshop this week that he planned to put the purchase on the agenda of Monday’s meeting. The acquisition failed by a 3-2 vote at the last board meeting, and Espersen was one of the two trustees who voted for it.

Espersen advocated a renewed look at the truck buy after DPW Director Dave Bird pleaded for it. It came at the very end of the workshop agenda — Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony said she didn’t want to talk about the truck, and Espersen suggested putting off the discussion until Monday’s meeting. Bird spoke up about the issue anyway.

“The concern I heard was that it wasn’t in the budget, well, if we’re buying this truck, we’re not going to be paying for it for five or six months, so we could still put it in this budget that’s coming up,” Bird said. He intends for state Consolidated Highway Improvement Program (CHIPS) funding to eventually reimburse Fredonia for the new truck.

Bird said he also heard concerns about the purchase in relation to a proposed merger of the Fredonia and town of Pomfret DPWs.

“Town of Pomfret has 10-wheel trucks that don’t fit down our streets. If we merge with the town of Pomfret, we lose all that (CHIPS) money to the state… it doesn’t transfer over to the town. It’s nothing out of our budget, it literally costs the village nothing. But if we don’t spend our money and we do merge, or the state says ‘Well, we are not going to give it to you,’ then it costs us everything.”

Bird continued, “We’re two years out on a truck and I have two working plow trucks, one that’s semi-working that needs to be converted to a salt truck because our salt truck is literally on its last legs.” The “two years out” refers to estimated delivery time for the new truck.

“We can’t push this cart down the road,” Bird said. “This is why we’re in this problem right now. And in two years, if we haven’t gotten this truck, we’ll need a loader. I can tell you right now the (current) loader’s probably not going to make it two years, and that’s going to need CHIPS money in two years. We’re looking at $400,000 or $500,000 at that point.”

Espersen then proposed the truck go onto Monday’s agenda. Bird had a few more comments, claiming that there might not be any plow trucks available next winter if one breaks down, if the new truck is not purchased.

“I’m going to tell you, we’re handcuffed. We’re going to be in very bad shape if we don’t order this truck,” the DPW director concluded.