Fredonia Police Chief David Price’s history lesson last month at a Village Board workshop was right on the money. During a discussion on funding issues, Price brought up a major reason why the municipality is having trouble making ends meet.

It dates back to 2015, when the village decided it would add staff to its Fire Department to raise more revenue. As is typical with government oversight, trustees then only focused on the money projected to come in. Expenses to run the program, specifically the salaries and benefits of added positions, was never a consideration.

“We sit here today because we’re exploring basically where to cut money, in an effort to rectify a budget year that we’re only six months into,” Price said. “The ambulance service was created as a revenue generator. There used to be five full time firemen. The ambulance service was created with the additional revenue promising to pay for those additional members to be paid firemen — so that’s why when you see these budgets created, as the last one, anticipated revenue pays for those salaries.”

Exactly.

This problem, however, is not tied to the current village Fire Chief Josh Myers or the present board. It is, instead, a lack of vision when moving forward with this plan a decade ago.

No one will deny how valuable the department’s emergency response is. They are heroes to many.

But the department has unrealistic revenues in an ambulance program with higher expenses than ever considered a decade ago. It is one more reason for the village and city to look at merging services.

Otherwise, a path to unsustainability will continue for both entities. That’s a painful option the city of Dunkirk is already facing.