The Mayville, Hartfield, and Dewittville fire departments recently met and brought out all of their equipment. The three departments are moving ahead with merging into a single district. Submitted photo

MAYVILLE – Days after Chautauqua town officials expressed their support to merge the Mayville, Dewittville and Hartfield fire departments, village leaders are doing the same.

During the Mayville Village Board meeting, the board scheduled a public hearing for May 28 at 6 p.m. at the Chautauqua Municipal Building. This will be an opportunity for the public to express their support or opposition to the merger.

The town board has already agreed to a hearing on this night.

Before the vote to schedule the hearing, village officials expressed their support for the merger.

“I think this is a great move in the right direction,” Mayor Rick Syper said.

Trustee Bill Ward agreed. “I commend everybody involved, including the leadership here and the fire departments for moving this along. It’s a good thing,” he said.

After the May 28th public hearing takes place, Mayor Rick Syper said he would like the village board to hold a work session where they will discuss items such as assets, renting the fire department building to the district, the fire department’s reserve accounts and the annual budget.

Syper said personally he’s not looking to make money off the equipment. “To me, I just think we donate to the whole district. It was funded by taxpayers and it should just go to the district,” he said.

Eventually Mayville will have to formally disband its fire department. That is not expected to take place until the new district is formed.

Syper said he attended a meeting where all three fire department volunteers met and everyone seemed to be on board. The new district is tentatively being called the North Lake Fire Department.