OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Pictured is the Fredonia Fire Department on Main Street.

Fredonia’s new Fire Chief Joshua Myers will have to wait a bit for his preferred vehicle, as the May 31 Board of Trustees resolution to buy it was invalid.

Myers wanted to buy a 2023 Chevy Silverado for $52,172 and use it as a fire chief command vehicle, intending to get back between $30,000 and $35,000 on trading in the current fire chief vehicle.

The trustees passed the May 31 measure hastily, expressing concerns about acting just days after first seeing the proposal. Myers said he had to order the new truck on the following day.

However, Trustee James Lynden told the chief at this week’s board meeting the truck must be formally bid out. Village procurement policy states any item worth $20,000 or more must go to public bid, by at least three bidders.

“If it’s not on a state contract, we have to go by the laws of how we have to do it. Even though it’s a nice price, we can’t go around it,” Lynden said.

He added that because a new fire chief vehicle is not in the capital improvement budget, money should not get transferred from another part of the spending plan to pay for it.

“The funds have to be transferred prior to the resolution … if there’s items you want to eliminate in order to come up with that amount of money for this vehicle, that would be one way to do it,” Lynden said. “But we have to figure out how the heck it would be getting paid for.”

“Basically because we didn’t budget for a truck, we have to figure out where the money’s coming from and designate it before we appropriate the funds,” Trustee David Bird said. To do otherwise would violate state law, he added.

Myers sought a new resolution Monday to buy another truck, a 2022 Chevy Silverado, which he said will be a better deal. Trustees tabled that move.

Mayor Douglas Essek asked Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau to sit down with Myers and “review and try to coordinate this effort to have it done correctly, please.”

The initial, May 31 resolution will get rescinded at trustees’ next meeting June 27.

The fire department did not come away empty handed from Monday’s meeting, as trustees agreed to a deal for new turnout gear. That one was in the budget.

Municipal Emergency Services of Poughkeepsie will provide the gear for $9,412.68.