In this screenshow taken from the Fredonia Access recording of the Fredonia Village Board of Trustees meeting, Mayor Douglas Essek, left, reacts with dismay as Trustee James Lynden, center, accuses him of being against Brooks Memorial Hospital's planned move to Fredonia. At right is Trustee Kara Christina.

Fredonia Mayor Doug Essek and Trustee James Lynden traded barbs at this week’s village board meeting about Brooks Memorial Hospital, spurred by a request from Trustee Kara Christina for a letter showing support for a new facility in the village.

“I think one of the concerns, at least from the article in the paper, was community support,” Christina said. “I would like to say I support having a hospital in the community, from one village trustee. I’m wondering if maybe we want to write a formal letter of support from the board and perhaps send that to, I don’t know who. But I feel like we need to be out there in saying we support this because it ultimately is a good thing for the village.”

“I think that’s a great idea as far as it being for the trustees,” Lynden replied. “I have a concern that at one point our mayor was totally against it, and spoke out against it, and wrote letters to the state against it. I would hope that his attitude may have been changed and that he would be supportive to this whole thing.”

“Jim, your accusations are absolutely false,” Essek said. “I was never against this project. The OBSERVER can quote me. They quoted me when (former mayor Athanasia) Landis announced it, I said it was a fantastic idea. I was never against it. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never wrote letters to anybody against it.”

“You wrote a letter to the state saying the village wasn’t capable of handling…” charged Lynden.

“I did not send any letters to the state, Jim. You’re absolutely false, and please don’t state such,” Essek broke in. Lynden said he had seen that in a news report.

The mayor said: “No, I spoke to somebody from the city of Dunkirk. I stated that if they attached their sewer lines to the lines that are on Route 20, they are already at the limit and that would be an impact to the taxpayers if we have to replace the sewer lines. The project showed that they were using a sewer line … near Wal-Mart and behind Lucky Lanes there, so it was not a problem.”

Christina asked again if her fellow trustees would back her plan for a letter of support, and they signaled they would.

“That is a great thing,” Essek said. “I was never against it, Jim.”

Lynden then brought up Essek’s attendance, while a Fredonia village trustee in 2019, at a Dunkirk rally seeking to keep the hospital in the city.

“You were at a protest and you were representing the people who did not want it in Fredonia. You were in another community as a trustee and you were claiming that you were representing the people that were against it. That stands as that you are against it,” Lynden said.

“I was supporting the people, the residents of our village,” Essek said sharply. “Thank you, Jim. I never publicly stated any of what you are stating.”

“I just hope you are for it now,” Lynden said.

“Jim… Thank you, Jim,” Essek said. He then moved to the next item on the meeting agenda.