Special to the OBSERVER

It has been a long time coming for State University of New York at Fredonia President Stephen H. Kolison Jr. Kolison and his family recently returned to the Lanford House, the presidential residence on Central Avenue.

No one is happier about it than Kolison.

“I’m very excited to be back here,” said Kolison. “I need to be here for the campus community, for the greater Fredonia community, and for my personal preferences.”

Kolison and his family first arrived at Lanford House in August 2020 after he was named the 14th President of SUNY Fredonia by the SUNY Board of Trustees. They spent nearly a year settling into their new residence, campus and village. However, they vacated the home in October 2021 for a renovation project that had been planned long before he accepted the position.

“The design phase for this project started in 2016 and took several years to get to the construction phase,” said Markus Kessler, SUNY Fredonia director of Facilities Planning. “It is a beautiful, historic home, but there were many areas that needed to be updated or modernized.”

The construction project is funded through the SUNY Construction Fund and is not tied to the campus budget. The project included significant structural work to secure the sinking cupola on top of the house, complete electrical rewiring of the home to bring it up to current code requirements, heating and cooling, plumbing, and the renovation of the kitchen to facilitate hosting formal campus events. The renovation also included an ADA-accessible bathroom on the main floor for use during formal events.

When told the necessary renovations would require the president and his family to temporarily leave the home, Kolison contracted with a real estate agent to identify a place for his family to live in the village or a surrounding community.

“We spent more than six months trying to identify a place,” said Kolison. “My goal was to stay in the community or live as close to the campus as possible.”

“We were searching for a home for Kolison and his family during a time when the housing stock in almost every market in the country was minimal due to the pandemic,” said Michael Metzger, former Vice President for Finance and Administration at SUNY Fredonia, who assisted the president in the search. “The stock of available housing in the area was limited and continues to be very limited. Besides looking in Fredonia, we considered Dunkirk, Jamestown, Westfield and Angola. The market was simply constrained.”

Unable to identify a location, President Kolison spent the last two years commuting from Orchard Park. “I drove close to 100 miles round-trip daily, which can be tiresome,” he said. “During the last two years, my day, considering time to commute and various responsibilities, typically started at 5 a.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m. I am aware that several Fredonia faculty and staff members commute to campus each day for various reasons. Regardless of their reasons, they have my empathy given the costs involved, the amount of time it takes, and the risks they take when driving during treacherous weather conditions.”

Still, the commute was only supposed to last a year at most, as the renovation project was slated to be completed in eight to 12 months.

“The bulk of this project was only supposed to last one summer, but a variety of issues related to the performance of contractors and sub-contractors extended this process out much, much, longer than it should have,” said current Vice President for Finance and Administration Michael Kelly.

Eager to return to the community and frustrated by the delays, Kolison and his family decided to move back into Lanford House before the exterior work was completed.

“I believe that it would be better to live with the exterior renovation noises and the inconvenience than to be on the road commuting,” said Kolison. “As President, the benefits of living on campus and actively engaging with our students and the community far outweigh commuting.”

The exterior work on the Lanford House will include new soffits under the high roof, energy-efficient windows, masonry brick work and the stabilization of the garage behind the house. Work is expected to start on this project phase in May.

With the move back complete, Kolison looks forward to reconnecting with the community even as he maintains his current role serving on the board of directors of Brooks-TLC Hospital and the boards of the Chautauqua Chamber of Commerce and the village of Fredonia Chamber of Commerce. “I enjoy stopping by the local eateries for a meal when I can,” he said. “There are foods like plantain and yuca (cassava, as it is called in the president’s native country of Liberia) that I can find at local stores. I enjoy getting my pizza and dropping off my dry cleaning at local businesses. I look forward to returning to the farmer’s market where I connect with people from the community. I want to visit churches and get to know more people. There are more local businesses for me to discover and patronize.”

According to Kolison, outside of his primary and daily responsibilities as president, his four priorities as a member of the Fredonia-Dunkirk community are helping to attract people to the area by leveraging what the university offers for a high quality of life; advocating strategically and strongly for the construction of a new Brooks Hospital; supporting special initiatives pertaining to the Central Connection; and having a reliable and sustainable supply of water for the entire community. “All of these things are essential to the future of the university and this community,” he said.

“I look forward to working with incoming Fredonia Mayor Mike Ferguson and the Dunkirk mayor in advancing our region. I also want to thank both outgoing Mayors (Douglas) Essek and (Wilfred) Rosas for the work we did together. It was indeed a pleasure to work with both of them.”