OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Fredonia’s summer concert series, seen here in 2023, won’t happen this year unless the village can swiftly find a sponsor to pay for it.

Pop star and Upstate New York native Lana Del Rey has a song called “Summertime Sadness.” Fredonia officials sang some summertime sadness of their own recently with two bits of recreation department news.

The village is going to start charging for its children’s playground recreation program. Also, it appears the summer concert series will get cancelled this year.

The Board of Trustees decided Monday to require a $20 fee for children who live in the village, or the town of Pomfret. The charge would be $25 for out-of-town children.

“We discussed it last year, in fact several, multiple parents proposed that as an alternative to shutting down the program,” Trustee Nicole Siracuse said. “So I don’t think it’s coming out of nowhere.”

Siracuse acknowledged that Recreation Director Kayla Sullivan is concerned that parents aren’t getting enough notice about the new fee. The village’s summer recreation program starts in July.

The 2025-26 budget, which trustees discussed Monday, does not include revenues from the fees. Treasurer Erlyssa LeBeau was unwilling to include revenues from something that hasn’t been formally approved yet.

Espersen suggested a $25 fee. Trustee Michelle Twichell replied, “I was gonna say don’t charge anything this year. It just seems like the cost of everything’s gone up, that families are struggling as it is. I just feel it wouldn’t be fair to increase it so high right now.”

“I totally get it that families don’t have a ton of money. I’m a single mom, I don’t have a ton of money either,” Siracuse said.

“I just feel like they’ll come complain, ‘What are we getting for our money,'” Twichell said.

Trustee Ben Brauchler retorted, “You’re getting a recreation program which we didn’t cancel.”

As for the summer concert series in Barker Common, trustees cut its funding in the latest budget. The budget line has only $500, down from $5,000.

Espersen said the program will not be cancelled if someone can pay for it. However, Brauchler and Twichell acknowledged that it will be tough to gather funding and book bands at this point, with summer just a couple months away.

“No announcement is going to be made that there is not going to be a (concert) program,” Espersen said. “But the program is dependent on outside funding and the availability of bands.”