The Meridian Fire Department was awarded a Cato fire contract Tuesday night during a meeting of the Cato Town Board.

“The fire department is very pleased that the town awarded us the North end of District No. 1,” Meridian Fire Chief Amed Perrotta said. “The fire department is willing to work with the town in any way we need to in order to maintain the level of protection in that district.”

In separate resolutions, the board voted 5-1 to award the Meridian Fire Department a 2009 contract to provide fire protection services to Cato Fire District No. 1, North. It also resolved 5-1 to award a contract to the Jordan Fire Department to cover District No. 1, South, which it had covered the previous year.

Two other contracts with the village of Cato for Fire District No. 2 and with Weedsport for Fire District No. 4 were unanimously approved.

The board's public hearing on the contracts was scheduled early on Tuesday night's agenda and ended at 8:36. When town supervisor Charles Ray was asked about the next step and if there would be more meetings in the process, he said, “I'm not sure what will happen,” and indicated that the board would be going through its agenda, which included a budget workshop and preliminary budget approval.

But late Tuesday night, the board voted on the fire contracts after most of the public in attendance had left.

The cost of each contract to the town was not available, but the town will hold a public hearing on its 2009 budget on Nov. 6 and those amounts will be included.