Gregory Myers

Fredonia has a new police chief, but the same old staffing issues.

Gregory Myers, hired last month to replace the retired David Price, had a report to the Board of Trustees this week that was similar to most of Price’s reports during his final months.

“We are in the process of canvassing some candidates for some of the open positions. We have four open positions right now,” Myers said. “We are at a minimum (staffing level). Overtime you see coming in is not extra, it is not just to have people coming in and doing extra things. It is to keep us at a minimum.”

The chief continued, “We are making it work right now. I’m fearful that the voluntariness of the shifts in taking the shifts may start drying up when it is a force-over situation or it becomes mandated, and people can’t get home when they are supposed to for child care or other purposes.”

Trustee Jon Espersen wants to sit down with Myers, Trustee LeeAnn Lazarony, and Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau to “kind of create a long term plan and see if there is anything we can do.”

Mayor Michael Ferguson said, “It is a competitive marketplace, and unfortunately these jobs have become in some cases, no different than the NFL that you watched yesterday: the team that offers the most money gets the biggest players.”

Myers said there are potential candidates coming out of the police academy. “We’re going to be threading the needle to try to figure out who we can hire.”