By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

The village of North Syracuse is in the process of untangling the history behind a reserve account that has been used by the North Syracuse Fire Department. At the Nov. 10 Village Board of Trustees meeting, Mayor Gary Butterfield said he learned that the village intended to create two reserve accounts in 1990, one for capital reserves and one for maintenance.

“At present, the fire department is the only one that kind of has the reserve account,” Butterfield said. “There was actually supposed to be two reserve accounts, and we really only recognize one.”

Butterfield said the 1990 board’s original intention was to establish reserves from which all village departments could draw. He cited minutes from the April 30, 1990, meeting in which the board voted to create two accounts, but only one was ever created.

The village’s justice court has its own reserve account into which revenue from DWI cases is deposited. That account currently holds $5,447.39. The North Syracuse Police Department has a reserve to fund DWI investigations as well; the police reserve contains $15,854.03.

As of Oct. 31, the village’s reserve account had a balance of $100,468.04.

“This money we have basically allowed the fire department to accumulate for an engine, the next item in the line,” Butterfield said. “I would like to specify that this money stays with the fire department. … It’s been going to them all along and previous boards have been OK with it.”

Going forward, Butterfield added, all village department heads must budget to put money aside in the village’s capital reserve account for specific equipment or projects.

“We have to know what it’s being used for. We can’t just take the money and put it in an account,” Butterfield said.

According to NSFD Chief Tim Ellis, the fire department once had three reserve accounts for new apparatus, new buildings and repairs and maintenance. He recommended the village look into what happened with those reserves before making changes to the present-day reserve account.

“Somewhere between 1992 and 1997, that was changed to one account,” Ellis said. “Without knowing the enabling legislation and amendments, how can we move forward to change this at all?”

Butterfield said he did not have a record of a change to the village reserve accounts after the 1990 motion and noted that the 1990 motion did not specifically mention the fire department. He said it would be “unwieldy” to create a separate reserve account for each village department, but money can be earmarked for specific departments.

“I want to do things accurately and correctly per state law, and I’m checking with NYCOM [New York Conference of Mayors] to find out if in fact … the path that I’m taking is accurate,” Butterfield said.

Butterfield said the village has “not identified” a reserve for emergency expenditures. “We’ve just kind of lumped them in together,” he said.

Fire chief clarifies paving project cost

Ellis also explained the cost of re-paving the apron in front of Station No. 1. At the Oct. 27 meeting, Butterfield said the project exceeded the $43,750 bid that the board awarded to Salt Springs Paving Corporation in September.

Ellis said the actual apron project came in at budget, but the repairs to drainage pipes were technically unrelated. The cost to repair the pipes is $3,992.28.

“The repairs that were found during the evacuation for the apron, we found sewer-fed pipes that were off-set, we found drainage pipes that weren’t connected. Those were not in the scope of the fire department apron project. Those were things we discovered after,” Ellis said.

Ellis said the official invoice for the pipe repair will arrive soon, and Butterfield said the engineers will submit the necessary paperwork for a change order. The board voted to authorize the mayor to sign the change order once that paperwork is in order.