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Fredonia’s budget approval with tax hike reveals rift

Mayor Doug Essek was not part of the trustee gathering on Monday.

Monday evening’s special meeting, which was televised only through the Fredonia Public Access Channel, said it all. When it came to the final approval of the 2021-22 village of Fredonia budget, Mayor Douglas Essek was on the outside looking in.

Seated in village hall were the five trustees while Essek joined the meeting by video. Residents, who wanted details, were nearly facing some of the same obstacles.

As of Tuesday morning, there was no agenda published on the village’s website for the previous evening’s meeting and no details regarding the budget.

With limited information being the norm during COVID-19, Village Board members unanimously approved a tax hike in the spending plan, but it’s nothing like the proposed 17% increase first proposed by Essek in late March.

By unanimous vote, trustees passed a plan that increases taxes by 1.4% to $35.69 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. It is a 50-cent hike per $1,000. Final budget numbers were not disclosed in the meeting or in an email to the OBSERVER on Tuesday.

“I’m real proud of all the trustees in working very hard and very diligently to get the mayor’s 17% tax increase down to a level we felt was more reasonable,” said Trustee Roger Britz, lauding new board members Scott Johnston and Heidi Powell. “We spent a lot of hours working together and I appreciate everyone’s hard work.”

Essek expressed his disappointment with the trustee changes, specifically in regard to pay raises for supervisors.

Complete coverage in Wednesday’s edition.

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