SACKETS HARBOR — The village Board of Trustees moved to put tighter constraints on Sackets Harbor Fire Company expenditures at its meeting Tuesday night.

The measure requires the company to have all expenses approved by the company's board of directors and the treasurer to give reports to the village board. The company's board has had to approve expenses from the money the town and village give the company. This means the board of directors would need to approve spending from fundraising and other accounts, as well.

Deputy Mayor F. Eric Constance asked whether the village board should get town support for the measure first.

"The town of Hounsfield has no legal oversight," Mr. Kinnie said.

Mr. Constance said, "We need them on board for this stuff."

Trustee Daniel E. Frechette said, "I'm not sure they'll be on board anyways."

Mr. Kinnie said members of the company have spent company money on legal fees as recently as Monday.

"I don't want to see another $3,000 that the fire department has raised to go to legal fees," he said. "It should go to what the people who donated it want it to go to — equipment, training and fire protection."

Trustee Genie McKay said, "I think we're acting the way we should've been acting the last 20 years. You can't go back, but you've got to move forward and start where you can."

On Aug. 28, state Supreme Court Judge Hugh A. Gilbert denied the petition of members from the company's Station 2 in Sulphur Springs that asked for dissolution, saying the corporation and its assets would not be divided.

After a motion from the attorney general's office was thrown out earlier on a paperwork issue, the office said it would continue to work on an investigation of fire department expenditures. The attorney general is seeking removal of five officers of the department for failing to exercise their fiduciary duties.

In September, trustees authorized the village's lawyer on fire company issues to rewrite the company's bylaws. The draft is being examined by the company's fire chief and chairman of the board of directors. The entire board of directors could have a revised copy of the bylaws by its meeting Monday.

The resolution Tuesday night asks for the same measures the new bylaws would enact.

The board also approved a new fire contract with the town of Hounsfield for fire protection beginning Jan. 1.

The contract is the one written by town attorney Robert J. Slye and presented to the Town Council on Oct. 8. The village receives the town money and passes it on to the Sackets Harbor Fire Company.

The contract calls for the town to pay its equal share of $55,000 by March 1, which has been standard for the fire protection contracts. An added measure will give the council an annual accounting of all company money by Aug. 1.

"That follows the fire department's fiscal year," Mr. Kinnie said.

The contract will be the subject of a public hearing at the Town Council on Nov. 5.