OBSERVER Photo by Greg Fox. Fredonia Village Administrator Richard St. George speaks during Monday’s village board meeting.

The village of Fredonia’s administrator has shot back at the town of Dunkirk supervisor after comments the supervisor made about an easement for the Fredonia Wastewater Treatment Plant.

During a town board meeting earlier this month, Dunkirk Supervisor Richard Purol stated he got a call from Fredonia Administrator Richard St. George. The call was regarding an easement request to construct a Northern Chautauqua County Regional Water District main along Route 5, past the village’s wastewater plant.

Purol said St. George questioned the need for the easement and told him he didn’t understand the reasoning. Purol explained the easement would be beneficial to give crews a little extra room to work in the right of way.

“Clark Patterson (Lee) the next day called him and showed him the letter. They said your DPW should be capable of telling you what they’re doing there. He said, ‘Nope, we don’t understand this. We’re going to get our own consultant so we can go over your easement proposal and you’re going to pay for it,'” Purol continued. “We’ll stay in the right of way and if they’re inconvenienced in any way because of lack of water because it’s so tight over there, then so be it. You had your chance. It’s not a threat, it’s just what’s going to happen.”

St. George did not take kindly to Purol’s comments on Monday.

During the village board meeting and in a prepared statement, he defended what he told Purol, pointing out it is his duty to collect as much information as possible when it comes to any action being requested of the trustees and mayor.

St. George added the village does not have its own engineer on staff to immediately review the schematics of the easement, which is why it must have an outside consultant research it to see if any village-buried infrastructure is located within the easement boundaries. He argued asking the village Department of Public Works to do the work of an engineer is “inappropriate, unfair and outside their area of expertise.”

He stressed the requested easement — once approved — is permanent and irrevocable, and it may cause issues for Fredonia in the future if some type of failure in the infrastructure were to occur in that area. He offered the example of the Sturgeon Point Water Treatment Plant break in the town of Evans that is currently an ongoing issue.

“It’s been upwards of nine days extending now for an additional five days with their 42-inch water main being out of service due to high-voltage wires going across Erie County Water Authority’s property,” St. George said.

The administrator then set his sights on Purol and the Clark Patterson Lee engineers. He said both are being “less than honest with their comments” and went on to say Purol was actually the one who was confused about the purposes of the easement — not him.

“It’s not surprising to me that they would be less than honest because it seems any chance anyone involved with this project gets to take a cheap shot at the village, they do it freely because they are never held accountable for their comments,” St. George asserted. “I feel it necessary to change that right now.”

The hunt for information on the easement had nothing to do with how the village has decided not to join the regional water district, St. George made clear.

“When it comes to a public utility … it’s important for the board to know exactly what infrastructure of the village is potentially infringed when granting a permanent … easement on that property,” he concluded. “Yes, the district will need to pay for that analysis, but the interests of the village of Fredonia come first when it comes to residents’ critical facilities and infrastructure. You can be sure that staying in a state right of way with your water main that the state of New York will not grant a permanent, irrevocable easement in their right of way, guaranteed.”

Village board members thanked St. George for his comments. Mayor Athanasia Landis mentioned the village had to invest $150,000 to find out that joining the regional water district was not the right option for Fredonia, so the issue of the district paying for the outside consultant research for the easement can be discussed once numbers are shored up.

The requested easement is on the east side of the village’s wastewater plant property. It is 22 feet by 18 feet.

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