Pictured is Alisha Brenecki one of 14 people who criticized Fredonia officials over a budget proposal at a Monday hearing.

It’s a hard truth of government that no one from the public shows up to meetings when times are good, but the chairs get filled when things turn sour. In Fredonia on Monday night, the chairs were filled for a Board of Trustees hearing on the upcoming village budget.

Fredonia’s officials heard 75 minutes of criticism from 14 speakers about the spending proposal, which originally featured a nearly 19% tax increase that has since been reportedly whittled down to about 13%.

Trustees decided to meet one time about making cuts to the budget. They will meet 10 a.m. Wednesday. They have already had multiple meetings over the last three weeks about the budget.

Much of the criticism during Monday’s public hearing came from concerned parents, over officials’ talk of cutting summer children’s recreational programs. Mayor Michael Ferguson attempted to head off some of that criticism before the hearing opened, promising that the cuts are by no means a sure thing.

“I expected a reaction and I respect our residents,” he said. “We will be bringing on our new recreation director (Kayla Sullivan, hired later in Monday’s trustees meeting) next week, and I think it’s only fair that that person have a say in what happens to their program. So stay with us, we’re going to readdress that issue.”

Sarah Hennessey Krzal said she and her family moved back to Fredonia four years ago. However, “currently we are asking ourselves why. It’s very disheartening to see a lot of the things going on in this community.”

She questioned why trustees would consider cutting recreational programs. “The only growing demographic we have in this village any longer are young families. If we take away the one and only thing this village offers for them — we have no splash pads, we have no new playgrounds, we have no museums, we have nothing here.”

Stating that there is a “line down the stairs” during recreation program registration time, Krzal added, “Families can’t afford to put their kids in day care for the summer. They are now struggling. What are they going to do with their children (if the programs are cut)?”

Referencing long-running complaints that children at the Barker Street playground are exposed to smoking from residents at nearby One Temple Square, she said the kids who “are maybe seeing some residents smoking, are not at home watching their parents shoot up drugs… Instead of being home, watching those things, they are now at playgrounds with a background-checked counselor with eyes on those children for six weeks during the summer.”

Alisha Brenecki said she has two children who have used Fredonia recreational programs for many years. She and her husband are Fredonia High School sweethearts.

“We’ve been very much a part of this community our entire life,” she said. “Many times, we’ve been asked, ‘why do you still live there?’ We always say, ‘it’s the community.’ It’s the people that are sitting right here, the people that care about where we live.”

However, “There’s so many cracks in our foundation we can’t live like this. It’s not fair to our future.”

Brenecki said the children’s recreational programs are beneficial to her as a working mother. While trustees face big problems and issues and have to make hard choices, “Don’t do it where our children are involved. They are our future. If you really just want this to be a retirement community, you’re doing a really good job.”

She concluded, “Find somewhere else to cut, because this is not it.”

Greg Lauer, Fredonia school district athletic director, said he and his wife have lived in the village for 15 years and “I’ve continually seen the positive things in this village decrease steadily, and now one of the lone bright spots that our youth have… the summer rec program, is looking to be hit pretty hard.”

Lauer said any closures of playgrounds “would be a humongous mistake” due to transportation issues. He advocated keeping all of Fredonia’s playgrounds open, fully staffed.

The hearing also featured familiar speakers such as former Trustee James Lynden, who claimed he could cut another $500,000 from the budget; former Mayor Athanasia Landis, who said, “I’m very proud of the fact that we did not have to raise taxes”; and ex-Village Attorney Samuel Drayo.

Ferguson said at the end of the hearing that there never was talk about cutting recreational programs outright. The talk was about consolidating programs and counselors, he said.

The mayor reiterated his assurances from the beginning of the meeting that recreation program changes will be reconsidered.

Trustees later approved yet another public hearing, this one on a local law they need to pass if they want to override the state’s cap on property tax hikes. That hearing is set for April 24 at 7 p.m.