Fredonia’s Board of Trustees ratified water and sewer contracts with SUNY Fredonia Monday.

Many months in the making, the contracts passed 3-1, with Trustee James Lynden voting no. Lynden objected to the fact that the resolution approving the contracts gave no details about them.

Village Clerk Annemarie Johnston provided copies of the contracts to the OBSERVER on Wednesday.

The contracts charge the college the standard per-gallon rates that all village resuients pay. SUNY Fredonia is to install and maintain its own lateral water and sewer lines.

The agreements are each for five years and the college has the option to renew them for up to two two-year terms. Each party must give six months’ notice if it wants to terminate a contract.

The water contract contains this clause: “it is hereby agreed that the village will ensure that the current connection to the Dunkirk Water District … is properly maintained and operable at all times during the term to provide water to SUNY Fredonia as an alternative water source in the event of any other emergency outage or other need.”

In addition, SUNY Fredonia will pay the village $81,330 to settle what it owes under the prior water contract.

Also, the college is mandated to take water conservation measures as directed by the village, upon notice of “shortage of water due to drought or emergency.”

At Monday’s meeting, Lynden wanted to table the resolution “for lack of content.” No one went along with him and he wound up voting “no.”

“The contracts were worked out pretty well, but as far as the public goes, I feel that the lack of content (of the resolution) is the reason … for my vote,” he said.

“As part of these contract negotiations, this has been going on for quite some time and I remember starting the process early in the beginning of the year,” said Trustee Roger Britz. “We brought these negotiations to the board numerous times, and if the public had any question during those times, they had plenty of opportunity to ask during then.”

“I felt that SUNY also had specific questions that needed to be answered that the board was happy to work with,” he added. “Trustee Lynden also had some questions that needed to be satisfied before we settled this contract.”

“I’d also like to add that these contracts were vetted by our legal counsel in multiple occasions over multiple months,” Trustee EvaDawn Bashaw said. “Each time it was questioned and sent back by us, it was addressed by our attorneys.”