The Fredonia Board of Trustees passed a series of resolutions related to the village water system one day before a boil-water order was issued.

One resolution approves a Federal Emergency Management Administration study on the dam and spillway. Fredonia has to pay $41,250 for the study, with the rest funded by a $165,000 grant. A second resolution approved the transfer of the $41,250 from the water fund balance to pay the village’s share.

Another resolution — which also had an accompanying measure to transfer funding from water fund balance — authorizes village engineers LaBella “to perform the engineering services to support the intermunicipal agreements as well as the submission of… state water grants in the amount of $19,500.”

The FEMA resolution passed unanimously, but Trustee Michelle Twichell voted against the LaBella measure. She said LaBella’s proposal is “based on a faulty… water system SEQR review.”

During his report time, Mayor Michael Ferguson attempted to use the recent catastrophic flooding in Texas as a whip to snap trustees into action about the dam and spillway. The dam and spillway are tagged as a potential hazard by federal authorities.

“Once again, America was hit with a 100-year flood. Right now, as I left the house, it was announced that 92 people have already been found dead,” Ferguson said.

“That’s unacceptable – and the reason why I say it is, unless we start moving in a positive direction with regards to the dam and spillway, we are leaving citizens of our community at dire, dire risk of having that same thing happen,” the mayor continued. “I encourage this board, I encourage the community to attempt to address this as soon as possible. Again, the ‘it could never happen here’ — I’m sure the people in Texas said that as well.”

Former Trustee James Lynden spoke out against the LaBella resolution, during the public comment time. He was the only person from the public to speak Monday.

“This is a continuation of the illogical spending of this village. Over a number of years here, there’s been no applications for grants to maintain our system,” he said.

Lynden complained to trustees, “You continue spending more money to dream your dream of somehow connecting Lake Erie water and pumping it uphill.” However, “your dream is the community’s nightmare” because buying water from Dunkirk will cost many millions of dollars per year more than producing its own water.

Lynden concluded of the village water system, “Once you don’t own it, that’s it. They have you. They will decide how much you pay, forever.”