Submitted Photo Pictured is the spillway, which needs maintenance, from a 2008 report from Chautauqua County on municipal water needs.

A collection of water projects, which includes a new 12-inch connection on Central Avenue, the spillway and a two-million gallon storage tank in the village of Fredonia was a topic of discussion at Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting.

According to Chris Surma, chief water operator the heavy rains during the day had the spillway roaring.

“I’m not an engineer, but people have told us and everyone has seen the damage up there from years of use, that could wipe out the whole village,” Surma said. “It’s the one project I’d probably do.”

“We’ve been cited for many years for having a dangerous dam,” Trustee Kara Christina added. “That’s a must do.”

“In light of the fact that we have created the connections with the North County Water District and the pump station on Vineyard Drive we seem to be in better shape than we have been for quite some time,” Trustee EvaDawn Bashaw chimed in. “I would think that the spillway would be the first thing that we tackle.”

Mayor Doug Essek added that all three projects are important and he is currently investigating with U.S. Rep. Tom Reed’s office, USDA grants and loans available to do such a large project.

“When you have these situations a lot of the different communities around the county have received numerous USDA grants and they’ve been eligible for them for all different kinds of projects,” Essek said. “This past year with our water issues and past years with all our water main breaks and our discolored water our residents have been living many decades with this problem, we have a chance now to investigate this and move forward and possibly get all these things done at once, possibly with grant funding. This is kind of in the preliminary stages.”

Working with Paul Snyder from the Chautauqua County Health Department Essek has extended the state of emergency for the water issue in order to help obtain emergency funds if possible.

“Different administrations have kicked this down the road for far too long, we’ve had some serious issues this year and one way or another we need to move forward on infrastructure whether it’s everything or partial and move forward,” he said.