By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM -- A couple of changes were made to the village budget for next fiscal year that was presented to the public at a hearing on it April 5.

One last minute change to the $10.55 million spending plan was the addition of cancer insurance for the volunteer firefighters of the Potsdam Fire Department, which was included in the spending plan presented at the trustees’ March 20 meeting.

The unfunded mandate from Governor Andrew Cuomo, which was revealed just recently, will cost an estimated $7,500 in the 2018-19 budget to cover firefighters who come down with cancer. The mandate takes effect next Jan. 1, so the $7,500 is expected to cover the expense for half the fiscal year, according to Village Administrator Greg Thompson.

There had been no budget line for that expense, but one was created when the mandate came down from Albany.

Thompson said the expense is expected to cost “between $200 and $300 per firefighter per year,” according to the governor’s office.

That perhaps will mean an expense of $15,000 per year for the roughly 60 members of the department, although no firm numbers are available from insurers yet, Thompson said.

The funding is to provide health insurance for firefighters who encounter carcinogens in smoke that can cause the volunteers to contract cancer later.

Clerk/Treasurer Lori Queor explained that the amount in the plan for the village’s share of expenses for the Potsdam Public Museum, jointly funded with the town, had been $15,810, but that was the amount from the 2017-18 budget. The revised amount is $21,340, she said.