FLY CREEK - Fire protection, emergency medical services and ambulance services for the Fly Creek fire district will be provided exclusively by the Cooperstown Fire Department once a contract is signed next week, an official said Wednesday.

Fly Creek fire district board chairman Richard Carr said that a special meeting would be held Thursday, May 25 at 7 p.m. in the fire hall so the board could sign a contract under which Cooperstown will provide fire protection for the entire district for the remainder of the year.

The board had been negotiating with the Cooperstown, Hartwick Seminary and Schuyler Lake fire departments and had planned to divide the district into three areas of coverage, but that plan is no longer under consideration.

"It would have been nice to be able to contract with all three departments, but we just couldn't afford it," Carr said.

The village of Cooperstown will receive $13,500 under the terms of the contract and will have full access to the Fly Creek fire hall. Carr said Cooperstown was tentatively planning to store one of their trucks in Fly Creek and was looking into using one of the Fly Creek trucks for training purposes.

Carr said the decision was made solely due to financial considerations and was not a reflection on the abilities of the other two departments.

"They're still the heroes for offering," Carr said. "This will leave us the funds we're going to need to rebuild."

Jim Tallman, chief of the Cooperstown Fire Department, said they looked at the number of calls requiring a response in Fly Creek and said they would have no problems with manpower. He said during an 18-month period they examined, the Fly Creek fire district received an average of four calls per month, some of which were motor vehicle accidents to which Cooperstown was already responding.

"I don't see it as an overburden for our department," Tallman said.

He said it was a shame that the plan to contract with all three departments didn't work out, but said the arrangement between Fly Creek and the village of Cooperstown is priced low to help leave enough funds for Fly Creek to form a new department.

"They're going to have a lot of expenses over the next year," Tallman said. "Anything we can do to help our neighbors, we'll do."

Carr said the plan was to have a new department, the Fly Creek Volunteer Fire Company, up and running by the end of the year. He said they could not officially begin recruiting until the certificate of incorporation was filed, but they had between 12 and 15 people interested in signing up.

The fire district's insurance costs will not increase because of the new arrangement, as both departments have the same carrier, Carr said.