Fredonia Trustee Jon Espersen wants the reservoir property logged.

“Three years ago, that administration entered into a contract with Forecon to do foresting, and actually paid them $2,500 — and then due to whatever reasons, they never followed through with that,” Espersen said at a Board of Trustees workshop last week.

Espersen was not a trustee in November 2021, when the board heard several heated complaints from the public about Forecon’s logging plan for the reservoir property. The pressure apparently caused the village to back off.

In addition, “I had a conversation with Forecon a couple months ago to see if we need another contract to move forward with that, and they said at this time, because of what’s going on at the reservoir, they don’t want to get involved in any kind of political debate,” Espersen said. “So they’re not interested in doing it.”

However, he continued, Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau found “a dozen or so” other forestry management companies. LeBeau will “contact them and see if we can get that moving forward,” Espersen said.

“I don’t think that forest has been forested in 25 years. According to some people at (SUNY Fredonia) I spoke with, it should be done every 15 to 20 years to keep the forest healthy,” Espersen said. “We can certainly use the income from that, whatever the amount may be,”

Mayor Michael Ferguson supported Espersen and LeBeau, echoing that a cutting not only will provide revenue, it will help keep the reservoir forest healthy.