×

Pacos slams water faction, outlines Fredonia plan

OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford North County Water District Chairman Dan Pacos sits below a Town of Dunkirk zoning map at the district’s July board meeting.

Dan Pacos has had it with Fredonia’s “Save Our Reservoir” group.

The North County Water District chairman and Town of Pomfret supervisor defended the district last week against what he said were untruths spoken by a prominent member of the group, Trustee Michelle Twichell.

“I take a little umbrage about the continual grenades coming from that faction,” Pacos said at a NCWD board meeting.

Twichell stated at a Fredonia board meeting earlier in the week that the district was trying to hire a full time executive director. She was trying to make a case that the district is mismanaged.

Pacos said the NCWD is seeking an executive director, but the person will also handle three other water and sewer districts. The position will be funded by contributions from the districts and not the Chautauqua County Legislature budget, said Kathy Tampio, the NCWD executive secretary.

Earlier in the NCWD meeting, Fredonia businessman Charles Civiletto made it clear he is not in what Pacos called “that faction,” which seeks to keep Fredonia’s water system fully independent.

He wondered if the village would ever join the district.

“Obviously, they’re not here,” he said. “They never show any interest in doing that.”

Actually, Fredonia representatives have occasionally sat in on NCWD meetings over the years, though none have done so in the last few months.

The village has certainly never made any formal moves to join the district, famously denying to take part when it was founded about a decade ago.

Pacos told Civiletto what he told the Pomfret Town Board the previous night: he approached Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson about linking the village with the town’s Phase 3 water project. Phase 3 is set to be supplied by the NCWD.

Pacos said existing infrastructure could be used to supply the village if a new tank, shared by the municipalities, is installed. He noted that Pomfret is already going to install a new tank, “and if we share costs with the village we could increase the size and pull this off.”

The village could probably buy water from the district based on Fredonia’s own master meter readings, he added.

“They would save millions (of dollars) in the long run,” Pacos asserted.

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today