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FREDONIA WATER: Interconnect funds arrive

Fredonia’s water system, which needs millions of dollars in future repairs and upgrades, received nothing more than a life preserver from New York state last week. The village was one of the Chautauqua County communities that received funding for infrastructure initiatives.

“Infrastructure is critical to economic development and future growth, and these projects are very important to us,” said County Executive Vince Horrigan. “I’m just thrilled we have this much success. Congratulations go to all those who have been hard at work on grants. It’s nice to see this pay off.”

One of Horrigan’s big pushes during his four years as a leader has been for the north county water district, which is backed by a number of municipal partners and many major businesses, including Athenex. Fredonia, however, sits on the sidelines and punishes its current users with a more than 30 percent water-rate hikes in its last spending plan.

Its grant award of $931,031 is a drop in the bucket for all the work that needs to be done on its system and reservoir. Where these funds need to go is toward capacity, specifically the interconnect between Dunkirk and Fredonia. Figures from Horrigan note the cost of the connection to be about $2.7 million, which could be split between the district, the city and village.

Bingo.

There’s the interconnect funding — right from the state — to protect village users and the university from what happened last week with the water main breaks and the major losses at the reservoir.

New York state is all about regional projects. It is time Fredonia gets on board. This funding makes it easy and without financial hardship.

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