Recent remarks by Fredonia village trustee are not sitting well with the contractor responsible for improvements to the water treatment facility.

In a letter sent to the village Nov. 10 and read at a recent Village Board meeting, Kandey Co. Inc. wanted to set the record straight in regard to the schedule of events that have taken and are to take place in their current contract for improvements. The company’s response comes after Trustee James Lynden said the West Seneca firm delayed important work that ultimately contributed to the 20-day water emergency in the village.

“The Health Department wouldn’t have been involved. We wouldn’t have gone through the stress of the community being without water. They could have started the main part of the project on time in September and none of this would have been happening,” Lynden said during an October meeting. “At what point do we start holding people accountable for what they’re supposed to be doing? These are essential services.”

During September, village residents were under a boil-water advisory.

Kandey Co., in response from project manager Richard H. Roberts, took aim at those statements.

“As you will note in original schedule, (Kandey) had planned removal and replacement of the filter media and new wash sweeps in filters 1 and 4 only to commence on Sept. 14, 2020 and be completed by Sept. 24, 2020,” Roberts wrote. “Kandey actually received and offloaded filter media and equipment on Sept. 10 and 11 and started replacement of media in filter 1 on Sept. 14, per original schedule with completion of both filters 1 and 4 and back in to service by Sept. 21, 2020.

“During the media replacement of filters 1 and 4, the water treatment facility was encountering substandard turbidity readings the ultimately made the village enact a boil-water alert to community which put water treatment facility in to state of emergency. (Kandey) was approached on Sept. 14 by facility to not only work overtime and the weekend to expedite completion of filter media in filters, we were also asked to provide a change cost to change out the media in remaining filter 2 and 3 that are not in original contract.

“At request of facility, I expedited filter media to site and followed with formal change proposal on Sept. 17 to change out the media in the additional two filters. (Kandey) was able to complete media replacement of 3 filters by days end Sunday Sept. 20, 2020 still within original schedule for two. (Kandey) was planning on completing the last filter the week of Monday, Sept. 21, however we were directed by facility that we could not do the last filter due to the current state of treatment facility and was asked to demobilize. (Kandey) knowing we would burden some demobilization impact cost, willingly demobilized site and waited for direction from facility to return and do the last filter which did place on Oct. 13.”

Roberts notes the inaccurate comments from Lynden “does nothing more than blemish the reputation” of the contractor.

“I ask the board and Mr. Lynden to review the original schedule again, (Kandey) has full intentions to complete this project by the end of 2020, however during multiple discussions with treatment facility operator and DPW superintendent, they have major concern about (Kandey) taking down one clarifier at a time to remove and replace with new equipment during cold weather months that would seriously compromise the treatment facilities production of treated water capacity. Again, (we) willingly accepted the owners request and agreed to extend the contract until mid-April 2021 and was issued a formal change order for this extension on Sept. 11, 2020.

“As far as delay cost requested above, (Kandey) is the one who should be receiving compensation for delay and extension cost, however at this time we are not jumping into any delay/extension costs we are entitled to until we are certain of the delay impact cost we may have to burden, if any.”

After the letter was read, board members did not respond.

Kandey remains unsatisfied with that lack of response. “Unfortunately, I don’t feel all the parties addressed in this letter have a full understanding of what has transpired on this project since March 2020 and what (Kandey) has done above and beyond to assist with handling these issues at the direction of treatment facility and DPW with no questions asked. I request the you contact those individuals to verify my comments within.

“In further, due to lack of project meetings that are not (Kandey’s) responsibility to perform …. I request that all addressed above contact either myself or the engineering firm to understand project details and if required I certainly have no issue with face-to-face meetings in future with all involved to discuss in depth,” Roberts said.