The LaBella engineering firm has already sent a bill to the North County Water District for a new study on Fredonia’s system, Village Trustee Jon Espersen said at a Board of Trustees workshop.

He said state and county funds are coming soon so LaBella can get paid to do the study as soon as possible. A quick turnaround is important because the village water system needs a State Environmental Quality Review in time for the 2025 round of infrastructure grants, Espersen said.

LaBella will be studying the possibility of Fredonia getting its water from the North County Water District. That option was left out of LaBella’s 2023 study on Fredonia’s water system.

Espersen wondered, “Per our attorney, we don’t have to pass a resolution on the new LaBella study. because we are not spending money. But do we want one?”

Nicole Siracuse supported a resolution. “It’s all about tracking — we can look back and say we supported this study,” she said.

Mayor Michael Ferguson emphasized the state and county funding, and that the study will cost Fredonia taxpayers nothing.

“The only way we can make the proper decision is through all the information,” he said.

Trustee Michelle Twichell, an avowed skeptic of LaBella’s original report, subsequently argued a little with Espersen and Siracuse over the correctness of the numbers in the report.

“The bottom line is, we will have all that information in front of us,” Ferguson interjected. “The bottom line is, our engineers and Pomfret’s engineers — so people understand why we went down this way – have had two meetings, have discussed it, and there is a great possibility that the connection with Pomfret, which would still be city of Dunkirk water, could save our taxpayers millions of dollars.”

Twichell said, “I don’t agree with that.”

Ferguson responded, “Wait until the numbers which have true math in them, (they) will tell us which way to go and we’ll go from there.”