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Fredonia wants to supply water to water district

Fredonia Mayor Athanasia Landis has the support of the Board of Trustees in her quest to get the North County Water District to consider letting the village join as a supplier.

Landis plans to send a letter to district officials expressing Fredonia’s willingness to talk about terms, but first sought opinions from the village board at a workshop session on Monday. The consensus was that she should insist on two things for Fredonia to join: The village should be a water supplier and it should not have to close its reservoir.

Trustee Kara Christina said Fredonia should join up, “but only as a supplier … I don’t want to do it if we’re only going to be a customer.” Noting it’s been an issue for village government since she joined the board three years ago, she added, “One of the problems that previous boards had is (the district) kept changing the terms of the contract.”

Landis assured her that if they joined, it would be at the least as a backup or supplemental supplier. Christina wondered if the village reservoir would still be used, and Landis said it would.Village Attorney Dan Gard pointed out that the city of Dunkirk has a 40-year contract with the district to be its sole water supplier. He said all other issues the village might have with joining the district were secondary to that one, because the contract would need to be altered or a new agreement of some sort reached.

“The North County Water District needs to clean their own house if they want our involvement,” he said. “They need to let us know. We have expressed our willingness.”

Trustee Jim Lynden, while also interested in the village becoming a water supplier for the district, said, “They’ve asked for specifics, but at this point there’s no point giving them specifics.”

Trustee Doug Essek said water resources will be a huge issue in this country over the next few decades, and in that environment, the village should have as many water sources as possible. He wants to upgrade the reservoir and he is also open to regional sharing of water. “I believe we need to look down the road and provide an investment for 50, 60 years down the road,” he said.

Essek said he can understand that water district representatives might be frustrated with Fredonia, as the village’s previous government was trying to keep out of the group. “It’s been a moving target. The village was presented with a host of different contracts,” Christina replied.

Trustee Roger Britz wanted to know what the water district wants out of Fredonia. “Originally they were asking us to be a customer,” said Landis, who has been exploring the issue with the backing and support of County Executive George Borrello. “I’m not sure of what they’re asking. What I’m sure of is what we’re offering.”

Landis added that if it joins forces with Dunkirk, the village could create a “powerful entity” for water resources.

Essek concluded the discussion by noting the village government will have to convince the people of Fredonia it is doing the right thing by exploring a move to join the district. “We need to assure our citizens this is a good investment. I really feel down the road it’ll pay off,” he said.

After the meeting, Landis said her plan was to offer “an invitation to talk, to start over.” She insisted that she was not suggesting the district break its supply contract with the city of Dunkirk, but is hoping for re-negotiation or a separate agreement to let Fredonia be a supplier.

“How can anybody say we can’t supply water to Dunkirk? I don’t even know,” she said.

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