Mayor Frank Pagano

Fredonia officials heard explanations about the recent boil order at Monday’s Board of Trustees meeting — and took criticism from former Mayor Frank Pagano about their handling of the village water system.

Mayor Douglas Essek started the pre-meeting workshop by asking Luis Fred, chief water treatment officer, to explain what happened.

“On June 6 we had a routine inspection on both our intake well and our clear well by divers,” Fred said. “Upon inspection, they noticed very fine solids in the influent section of our clear well. As the inspection was underway, the solids got disturbed and made its way through the clear well into the head of the distribution system.”

This raised the water system above state turbidity standards. Fred said he contacted the county Department of Environmental Health for guidance and was advised to flush hydrants near the water plant.

He described the testing that took place to lift the boil order and added, “I fully believe we caught an isolated problem right away.”

In response to trustees’ queries, Fred said the test in question takes place once a year and he is not aware of any problems with it in the past.

Trustee James Lynden suggested that in the future, Fredonia’s water system could be shut down for the test and the village could buy water from Dunkirk.

A representative from Environmental Health said, “If the clear well itself had been maintained correctly in the past and the plant was operating as it should have, there is no reason to suspect there would be enough solids in it to trigger a boil water order.”

She added that with the current connection on Vineyard Drive, Fredonia could not pull enough water from Dunkirk to supply its needs during a test without “dewatering” the city. Dunkirk can provide a “short-term flow.”

Essek said that is why he keeps pushing for a second connection with Dunkirk.

“What I gathered from this is Luis did everything exactly how he should have, because everything that happened is not a usual, typical reaction to what’s happening,” Trustee Nicole Siracuse said.

Lynden said, “It’s just a matter of maintaining or making sure that that’s watched over so (the solids in the tank) doesn’t build up.”

Pagano later spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting, the only person to do so.

“I’m here representing dozens of community members and your constituents,” he said. “They’ve asked me to come — I asked them to come too, but they’re afraid of you, I guess.”

Pagano continued, “The maintenance on that (water) plant is really poor. The clear well should have been checked months ago. You can’t do that once a year. Also, the turbidity — that plant is designed to take care of turbidity and it wasn’t done.

“The other thing is your spillway. Your spillway is not insured, it hasn’t been insured for 10 years. You know why it’s not insured? The insurance company says it’s not fit to be insured. Needs work. Now, if that spillway ever goes, all the residents on that side of town will get flooded and the village will be set up for thousands of lawsuits and millions of dollars in compensation. You’ve got to get that spillway fixed and let the insurance company inspect it so they can insure it for you. It’s not being done.”

Pagano went on to criticize what he called Fredonia’s “hesitation” in working with Dunkirk on water issues.

“Residents are really ticked off, they’re angry,” he concluded. “I’m telling you, you’ve got a problem up there and it’s not going to go away by looking the other way.”