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Stubborn village part of SUNY struggles

OBSERVER File Photo Volunteers hand out water in Fredonia in 2020 during a boil-water order. Those plastic bottles did not sit well with SUNY students.

Fall semester 2020 was a daunting challenge for the State University of New York at Fredonia and its new President Stephen Kolison long before it began. Officials across SUNY had been awaiting guidance on how to move forward with bringing students back to dormitories and classes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kolison, who took the helm in August of that year, learned quickly of the difficulties that come with attempting to oversee a major employer in the north county village. Besides overseeing operations of the higher education establishment, he had to deal with the local troubles on the outside. Within that first month, COVID was not his only crisis. It also involved village water.

Madison Velez, a junior at the institution, remembers it as well. Earlier this month, she took it upon herself to attend a Fredonia board meeting to seek answers with regard to the village’s operations.

“I’m curious to know what is being done on the water treatment front, just as a resident on the campus,” she said. “I recall two years ago last summer, there was the whole water-boil situation where no one had access to clean water. … Given the current age of the equipment being used, I was just wondering if there would be any improvements to be made.”

To the credit of the board and mayor, all took time to respond as best they could to reassure Velez the water system is getting better and improvements are continuing to be made. It all sounded quite optimistic, but there are no guarantees.

Fredonia has an all-too common history of water difficulties that few other municipalities can top. Since July 2009, there have been four boil-water advisories and conservation orders that have come from the Chautauqua County Health Department due to high turbidity or low pressure levels.

Though these issues are an inconvenience for the residential users, it can be downright devastating for business, industry and the university. Village leaders of the recent past have been overly stubborn to give up its water supply due to the revenue it has been able to generate for the municipality through the years.

But poor service to major customers, especially Carriage House, have been part of the reason 250 jobs moved out of the north county to a new plant in Kentucky. Frequent boil-water orders at the large food processor meant a halt to production leading to revenue losses. One boil-water advisory, in 2008, was never communicated to the plant manager by the village. On that day, tens of thousands of dollars of product had to be discarded meaning there was no return on investment by the company.

On the university grounds, water problems in the village over the past 15 years have not slowed production. They have, however, horribly impacted the customer base.

Instability regarding finances and enrollment can be blamed on a number of items. Some of are budgetary issues tied to stagnant funding from Albany while another factor is a declining population in upstate New York that leads to fewer students attending SUNY campuses.

A heavy dose of responsibility also can be pinned at the feet of previous village leaders for their lack of urgency when it came to taking action with previous water crises. From August 2020 to the end of the spring 2021 semester, SUNY Fredonia enrollment fell from 4,075 to 3,486. That’s a loss of 589 students — or 14.5% of the university population over only four semesters.

Certainly COVID had a role in the decrease, but that 2020 water crisis loomed a lot larger than many villagers and local elected officials want to admit. It is exactly the reason Velez was at the Sept. 6 board meeting.

For students, a lack of access to water during those three weeks was more than just an inconvenience. It was an environmental catastrophe as thousands of plastic bottles of water were being distributed on campus from Sept. 9 to 30.

Though that may not be a worst-case scenario for long-term residents here, it is a huge distress for a younger generation. For them, the environment is one of their top concerns. From their perspective, plastic is one of the greatest enemies — and one of the best ways to reduce that product is by refilling water containers.

SUNY Fredonia’s fiscal realities have been well documented in this publication — as has the repititious village water problems. The university and municipality, for the most part, are supposed to be partners. One cannot succeed without the other.

Interestingly in the recent months, the partnership has been on thin ice. Village Trustee James Lynden attempted to make the university — and other major industrial users — pay a larger fee for this resource that has historically been delivered with an inconsistent quality. Thankfully, other board members voted against the resolution.

Struggles and enrollment issues at SUNY are real. But village decisions of the last two decades, including a real lack of action with past water problems, have already devastated a number of businesses while putting a tremendous strain on one of the community’s greatest economic partners.

John D’Agostino is editor of the OBSERVER, The Post-Journal and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-366-3000, ext. 253.

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