By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- On the heels of a tense debate last month that ended in the board voting to let the DPW look for two new motor equipment operators, the trustees on Tuesday voted to let the department to look for one more.

At last month's village meeting, Hassan Fayad, the Department of Public Works superintendent, had asked to hire four operators. There was a tense debate where Fayad said their current staff level leads to unsafe work conditions and said they may have to reduce the level of services.

"The services we provide revolve around the level of manpower we have," Fayad wrote in a memo to the board made public at Tuesday's meeting. "Our service is non-sustainable with this amount of reduction in staff and I am requesting to fill all current vacancies."

On Tuesday, he came back to the board and asked if he could hire one more.

"What I am requesting is to fill those two positions that are still currently vacant and will be vacant by the loss of one individual from his passing and the retirement of another," Fayad told the board on Tuesday. "It gets us to a level of 14 personnel in that department versus 16 back in 2008."

After his remarks, the board voted to enter executive session to discuss what Mayor Tim Currier said was collective bargaining. The closed-door session lasted about five minutes.

When they returned, Trustee Timothy Ahlfeld said they may revisit the idea of hiring one more motor equipment operator later in the year.

"We've already given approval to canvas for two employees. I'll make the motion that we canvas for one more employee," Ahlfeld said. "Possibly this summer, after things settle down a little bit, after things come to fruition we'll go out and canvas for more.

"At this point, I'm comfortable giving the superintendent permission to canvas for one more employee."

The board voted 3-1 to let Fayad look for the third employee. Trustee Francis Carvel voted no. Ahlfeld, along with trustees Albert Deshaies and Matt Lebire, voted yes.