Scott Johnston has been appointed to one of the two vacant seats on the Fredonia Village Board.

“I’d like to make a motion that we hold a vote on the prospective people we have for the two vacant seats on the board of trustees,” Trustee James Lynden said Monday as he opened discussion for the filling of the positions. “There are four people that have expressed interest, we had one vote at a previous meeting that did not pass. There’s three other people who have expressed interest, they all have qualifications, some more than others.”

The other two candidates were Brad Meyers, who was the Fredonia Police chief for many years and retired just a year ago. He participated in budgets and committees and attended all the board meetings over many years; and Dr. Mchael Barris, a past board member who is familiar with the process.

After putting each candidate forward for a vote, Lynden was unable to get a second on either Barris or Meyers, but did achieve a second on Johnston in the form of EvaDawn Bashaw. Following her second, the three trustees voted unanimously on Johnston for appointment despite some concern from Lynden.

“One concern with Scott Johnston that needs to be known is that his wife, Annmarie Johnston, is our village clerk,” Lynden stated. “I don’t foresee any issues and we’ll try to keep things conflict free and not have him vote on anything that would have anything to do with her employment.”

Despite the filling of one seat, Lynden was upset over the lack of ability to fill the other.

“I just want to say how disappointed I was that we couldn’t fill that other seat tonight,” Lynden said. “We had some discussions and it’s a shame that out of four people that showed interest out of the few people that do in our community that we couldn’t fill this seat tonight.”