WESTERLO — Following the town board’s approval of the fire company’s annual contract, a councilman’s attempt to require more information from the company for future budget requests was met with contention and tabled.

The $191,305 contract, was passed unanimously on March 3 as about a dozen members of the fire company watched from the back of the gallery. Aside from the figures, its wording was unchanged from last year. Its fiscal year started on Jan. 1, but the board, led by William Bichteman, asked for a more detailed presentation of the financial picture of the not-for-profit Westerlo Volunter Fire Company, which didn’t come until last month.

As a resolution meant to prevent the lapse from happening again was read before a vote, Assistant Chief Andrew Joslin from the fire company asked for clarification on whether or not the board intended to see all of the company’s revenue and expenses, including donations.

 “You don’t think that that should impact the amount of money that’s required from the town?” Bichteman asked of a generous benefactor or a trust given to the company.

“No,” murmured a series of company members.

Joslin said the donations the company receives from calendar drives and breakfast fundraisers are used to supplement what comes from the town. The donations aren’t for fire service, he said, but for extras, like saving for new equipment, or fixing a broken furnace, or meeting emergency fuel needs.

In what he later called a compromise, Bichteman asked instead that the company expand its itemized expenses, specifying, for instance, for what the loans and interest in the budget is actually paying.

The resolution read aloud by Bichteman during the meeting required service providers that contract with the town — including the library, the fire company, and the ambulance — to submit verified copies of the previous year’s financial records using single-entry cash accounting by Aug. 31.

Westerlo’s fire chief, Kevin Flensted, asked that the board consider adding a provision in its contracts that reverts to the current agreement in case a new one hasn’t been reached by Jan. 1.

Bichteman concluded by suggesting the fire company welcome people from outside of its membership to serve on its ethics review board, which he said is currently the same people as its board of directors.

Other business

In other business, the town board:

— Heard from town Historian Dennis Fancher a list of highlights from the town’s history as Westerlo’s bicentennial anniversary will be on March 16;

— Heard from Bichteman that a water pipe had frozen and broken at a vacant property where the furnace failed. He said close to 550,000 gallons were lost from the municipal water system in Westerlo, carrying a cost of $9,000 that will be charged to the property owner.

“It had just enough that it would maintain the flow,” Bichteman said of the main water tank; and

— Scheduled its next work meeting for March 17 at 7 p.m.