Even though she didn’t attend the board meeting, Fredonia Trustee Michelle Twichell managed to make herself heard quite clearly Monday on the village’s water issues.

Village Clerk Annemarie Johnston read a letter from Twichell where she stridently defended Fredonia’s right to control its own water system.

Twichell wrote that’s “based on concern for the present interests and future well being of Fredonia residents. We must recognize that the village is participating in a valuable commodity market for water which brings the interests of Dunkirk and the county into focus as both partners and competitors.”

She continued that LaBella’s recent report shows that maintaining and upgrading the current system would be most cost-effective.

“The North County Water District is a county entity that would welcome the potential revenue should Fredonia abandon its own water resources,” Twitchell wrote. “I do not favor the county’s unenforced insistence that Fredonia decide its water future so soon after publication of the LaBella study.”

Twichell said that any burden of constructing infrastructure to connect with outside sources would fall “almost entirely on the new village government on Jan.1. As a member of that new government, I look forward to preserving and strengthening Fredonia’s advantage of a high-quality water source distributed through a relatively inexpensive gravity-fed distribution system.”

She called the possibility of closing the reservoir “hastily considered.” Twichell added that buying water from Dunkirk “would require chemical adjustments and additional pumping. Who pays for this?”

In conclusion, Twichell wrote, “I will not be one of the deciders who, years from now, will be remembered as one of those who threw away Fredonia’s privilege and promise as a provider of a vital necessity.”

Twichell was absent from Monday’s meeting but requested that Johnston read the letter. The clerk was hesitant to do so during the time for reading correspondence from the general public, stating that as a trustee, Twichell cannot really be considered a member of the public.

Trustees and Village Attorney Mark Guglielmi briefly discussed what to do. The trustees finally voted to have Johnston read the letter during what would have been Twichell’s own report time. The vote was 3-1, Trustee David Bird voting “no.”