FREDONIA — The Fredonia Fire Department will now charge for coverage at community events, a move apparently spurred by a lack of volunteers to cover this season’s Fredonia High School football games.

The village’s Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to approve the change. Trustee James Lynden was the “no” vote.

“The high school is requiring a standby service for the football games and right now we don’t have volunteers to assist,” said Trustee Michelle Twichell, opening a discussion on the matter during the trustees’ workshop.

She said Fire Chief Josh Myers, who did not attend last week’s meeting, felt “the best way to handle this would be to have a service request form where the high school would reimburse us for that type of coverage.”

Twichell sought fellow officials’ opinions. “We’ve never done this before, it was always handled by volunteers,” she noted.

Citing a Myers email, Fredonia Mayor Douglas Essek said the fire department sends an ambulance to games, but that requires qualified parademics to fill in at the station, often requiring overtime.

“You’re tying up services that our residents may need in a situation,” he said.

Essek added Myers found that other municipal fire departments charge for similar event coverage. The mayor said the Fredonia school district was fine with paying a fee.

Trustee Dave Bird noted that standby ambulance coverage is a state requirement for high school football games. “If the service is not there, the game can’t be played,” he said.

Lynden’s objection was mainly that the cost of the coverage would simply get passed on to school district taxpayers.

“I can guarantee that your school taxes will not increase for these services that you are paying for,” Essek said. “I think it’s mostly having the qualified personnel on the ambulance that’s provided.”

“I feel it’s just disappointing that we have volunteer firemen who are hoping for different compensations and tax reliefs … but they can’t somehow find a way to volunteer for a few football games a year,” Lynden said.

“Our volunteers volunteer 24-7, 365 days a year, Jim,” replied Essek.

“Of course they do, but they’ve always done (the football games). It’s something new, I don’t know. I guess it is,” said Lynden.

“Have you ever volunteered for something like that?” retorted Essek, a “volly” himself. “No, you haven’t. You haven’t been a volunteer fireman. You have no idea.”

Acknowledging the mayor was right, Lynden shot back, “That was a little rude, but thanks.”

Since the first game is scheduled for Sept. 2, Essek suggested approving the arrangement with a walk-on resolution. Village Attorney Melanie Beardsley wrote the resolution during Monday’s session.

When he voted “no” on it, Lynden reiterated his concern that the fees would simply get transferred from village taxpayers to school taxpayers.

The new service request form will be available on the fire department’s website, according to the resolution.