Photo by Jo Ward Fredonia Village Board is pictured at last week’s meeting.

The LaBella study recently released regarding the Fredonia reservoir and water delivery system has raised some ire from trustees and some of its residents.

The study commissioned by Chautauqua County was to determine whether to shut down the reservoir and dam and buy water from the North County Water District.

At last week’s meeting, resident and former village administrator Jim Sedota spoke at length about the cost of alternate two versus alternate one within the study and the increased cost. It would have on village taxpayers and businesses.

“Alternate one has a cost of $5,706,000 as the annual average cost versus alternate two which is $7,529,000,” Sedota began. “The difference is $1,763,000 per year, so multiplying that by the 30 years, alternate two costs makes it higher by $52,890,000.”

Sedota mentioned the project would take about three years to complete so 2029 would be the first year with the total cost.

Sedota went on to share that this is a big project valued at $225 million over 30 years and requires a financial consultant to provide and verify numbers and that more study needs to be involved.

Sedota’s comments refer to LaBella’s study noting it would cost about $34.9 million for Fredonia to repair and keep its water system. Moving to North County District water would cost about $20.7 million.

Annual debt service would be $700,000 more for the “go-it-alone” option, aka “Alternative 1” in LaBella’s report — $1.9 million versus $1.2 million. Alternative 1 would also demand $1.9 million more in operation costs than the water district option, aka “Alternative 2.”

However, the second alternative would sock Fredonia with water purchase costs that would average $4.7 million a year over a 30-year period.

Trustee Michelle Twichell responded to Sedota’s concerns citing the study by LaBella engineers was not voted on by the trustees and was prepared on behalf of the county’s water district and paid for by the taxpayers of Chautauqua County through the Legislature’s general fund. “Although we are told that certain details have yet to be included, I see enough information to know that there’s no good deal to be had by the village to become dependent on the county and the city of Dunkirk for its water supply,” Twichell stated. “This board has failed its fiduciary responsibilities to the taxpayers who began to open their property tax bills last week. Both the previous LaBella study and the new LeBella study show how the taxpayers will be further burdened if we fail to maintain our own reservoir and water treatment plant.”

Twichell added the village should be applying for a grant through the department of Homeland Security FEMA Division. According to her the FEMA proposal is designed to analyze options for managing the reservoir dam.

The study would provide information needed regardless of the board’s decision to keep or abandon the reservoir. She went on to note the village can pay for the study now using their existing water fund balance.

Trustee Jon Espersen later added that a portion of the study does not include the cost of dredging because they don’t know how much sediment will have to be removed from the reservoir.

“There’s a 2000 study that said it would cost about $11.5 million to dredge, assuming they could find a place to put the sediment that they dredge out,” Espersen said. “We have to assume in the last 25 years those costs have gone up considerably when LaBella was informed. They said they were waiting for a study from the college to show them how much the actual volume was in estimated sediment.”