Fredonia’s water debate dominated another Board of Trustees meeting this week, with the “Save Our Reservoir” group continuing to press its case that the village should renovate its current system and not acquire water from Dunkirk.

Mayor Michael Ferguson announced that a Chautauqua County Health Department community forum on Fredonia’s water issues will take place 6 p.m. April 10 at the Fredonia Opera House,

With nothing strictly water-related up for a vote on the agenda Monday, Save Our Reservoir had fewer representatives in the audience than at other recent meetings. However, three members who have spoken repeatedly on the issue did show up to hit up the speaker’s podium.

“We want our water system fixed and we don’t want to spend all those millions of dollars of borrowed money on something that accomplishes nearly nothing. Really think about this,” said Rob Clark, addressing each trustee and Mayor Mike Ferguson by their first names. “The only timely and financially responsible path forward is to become fully compliant with our county and state as soon as possible, and then we’ll see what, if anything, we wanna do next.”

Andrew Ludwig thanked Trustee Michelle Twichell for requesting an Army Corps of Engineers representative to speak with trustees about streambank stabilization at the reservoir. Referring to the workshop where the representative spoke, he said, “I’m watching this… and I’m thinking, ‘Boy, it looks like they have an open mind.’ And I’m really encouraged. But then some things happened that made me change my mind.”

Ludwig alleged that both local political party chairpersons called the Dec. 26 Board of Trustees vote to pursue drawdown of the reservoir, shutdown of the treatment plant and acquisition of water from Dunkirk a “done deal.”

He downplayed worries about federally designated “high hazard dams.” The dam behind Fredonia’s reservoir is one such structure.

“There are 15,600 high hazard dams in the United States,” Ludwig said. “The Kinzua Dam (on the Allegheny River in northwestern Pennsylvania) is a high hazard dam. It doesn’t mean there’s imminent danger of those dams bursting and creating havoc.”

He concluded, “I guess my big question is, is this a done deal or not?”

The third speaker was former Trustee James Lynden, who like Clark and Ludwig, made sure to reference Dunkirk’s recent decision to raise the price of water it sells to the North County Water District.

“If you go with Dunkirk, you’ll lose your autonomy, just like the North County Water District did,” Lynden said. “They had no choice in this increase in rate — nor will we.”

He concluded by asking trustees, “Please rethink everything you’re doing, quickly. You’re wasting a lot of time and money.”

Twichell, who with Lynden provided the “no” votes on the Dec. 26 resolution, later stated, “Because that was a resolution, that meant it became law. That was a legal response from the trustees to move forward. There’s a lot of questions.”

Trustee Jon Espersen, who voted for it, replied, “I’ve said all along that that is the direction we’re moving, until and unless we get to a road block and are not able to go down that road, then we need to change course.”

Twichell asked, “What type of road block?”

Espersen said, “The funding’s just not available, Dunkirk’s not willing to negotiate, whatever might come up.”

“I see a road block already with the raise of the price of water,” Twichell replied.

Trustee Paul Wandel, who took office in January and was not involved in the Dec. 26 vote, later commented that the village should prioritize two things with its water system: Clearing up nonconformance with state regulations and updating its distribution system.

Ferguson later stated, “We have spoken to Dunkirk to find out what pricing would be, to see what things are going on there. Yes, they had a price increase… Nobody is going to go into an agreement with anybody — unless it’s a 20- or 30-year agreement, with the areas of escalation (of water cost) maybe 2%, maybe 3%, maybe 5% on an annual basis. Frankly, if that was done on an annual basis (in Fredonia), we probably wouldn’t be in the position we are in now.”