The village of Fredonia and town of Pomfret will now have a joint public hearing on their joint comprehensive plan.

Fredonia Mayor Douglas Essek brought up the issue at last week’s village Board of Trustees meeting. He noted an OBSERVER story during the week which related how Pomfret was going to do its own hearing, because village officials were allegedly not ready for a joint one.

Essek asked the board if it was ready for a hearing. “It seemed to be we did have a representative from (plan consultants) Ingalls who addressed the board a number of meetings ago and I believe the board was on line with a public hearing,” he said.

“It hasn’t gone before the (Fredonia) Planning Board yet,” Trustee Michelle Twichell said. Village Clerk Annemarie Johnston said that body was set to meet Tuesday and would vote on whether to approve the comprehensive plan. The Planning Board did wind up approving it.

Essek offered to call a special meeting of Fredonia’s board for the same time and place as Pomfret’s hearing, which is set for the town hall on Oct. 5 at 5:15 p.m.

Pomfret Supervisor Dan Pacos was at Monday’s meeting and had an immediate response.

“We did not refer the plan back to our planning board, because we had delegated it to the committee that worked on the plan,” he said. “We had the presentation to our board and we’re going to move forward with it. But if you’d like to make that a joint public hearing, we’d be happy to do that.”

Trustee James Lynden noted the village would have to pass a resolution calling for a public hearing but couldn’t do so yet because the Planning Board hadn’t approved the plan. Village Attorney Melanie Beardsley said the trustees could pass a resolution at Monday’s meeting calling for the hearing if it specified that it would only happen if the Planning Board approved the comprehensive plan.

The trustees ended up asking Beardsley to draft such a resolution, and then passed it. With the Planning Board’s approval Tuesday, that sets up a joint hearing at the time and place already approved by Pomfret.