After years of avoiding it, Fredonia is now doing business with the North County Water District.

Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson, Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz and district board Chairman Daniel Pacos signed an agreement Thursday, after a NCWD board meeting, to sell NCWD water to the village. It’s a short-term move made in the hopes of avoiding a village boil-water order on Monday and Tuesday as contractors clean a clear well at the Webster Road tank in the Fredonia system.

The cleaning is now set for Monday. It was moved up a day at the contractors’ request.

Officials are encouraging Fredonia water customers to conserve water use this weekend.

“If the village can drop its water use by about a third for two or three days, we can get that clear well cleaned without having to run the water treatment plant,” said Natalie Whiteman, Health Department water specialist, at Wednesday’s forum on Fredonia water issues.

“If they have to run the plant during that probably two-day period, you’re going to be in a boil water order, because there’s no way they can clear that clear well, that tank, without stirring up enough solids to put you on a boil order.”

In another move toward avoiding a boil order, a connection between the towns of Portland and Pomfret will be used, for the first time, to deliver water to Fredonia. The section of Pomfret where the connection is located currently gets water from Fredonia’s system. Portland is a NCWD member.

Wdowiasz was involved in Thursday’s agreement because the city of Dunkirk is the sole supplier of NCWD’s water.

“Fredonia called us,” said Randy Woodbury, Dunkirk Department of Public Works Director. “They are being proactive in cleaning a tank.”

Fredonia will buy water at the standard rate the district sells to its regular constituencies. Ferguson told the OBSERVER that the volume is unknown at this time as the water will be supplied from the NCWD on an as-needed basis.

“If we can help them around a boil water order, we’re all in on that,” Woodbury said.

“The city of Dunkirk wants to be good neighbors to everyone,” Wdowiasz said. “This is a good way to test the system.” Dunkirk officials have shown interest in supplying Fredonia’s water on a regular basis.

“For communities our size, the future is (in) working across intermunicipal lines,” Ferguson commented.

Woodbury said the connection is expected to be open about a week. However, Whiteman said that ideally it will only need to be used “for a matter of hours, at most a day.”

It’s not clear if the direct Vineyard Drive connection between Dunkirk and Fredonia will be used in this process. Woodbury said there is an option to use it “as needed.”

There is supposed to be a third connection between Dunkirk/NCWD and Fredonia water territory, between the towns of Pomfret and Sheridan. However, completion of that has been delayed for months – and officials said Thursday the delays continue. The connection is still in need of an electrical generator to serve the pumps in case power goes out.