OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Town Attorney Jeff Passafaro advised the Dunkirk Town Board on how to proceed with seeking a solution for its Shorewood Water Project through eminent domain.

Patience can only last so long. The Town of Dunkirk has reached a point where attempting to reason with a handful of its residents has gone on long enough.

The Town is moving forward with eminent domain litigation against property owners in the Shorewood Water District who refused to sign easements to allow capital improvements to proceed.

The Town of Dunkirk was awarded a grant through the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation WIIA program up to $1,377,000 to apply to the Shorewood Water District capital improvement project. The Town must enter into a project finance agreement by Sept. 30, 2026. Because of how narrow the roads are within the district, easements are necessary for the work to proceed.

Securing those easements, however, has proven to be quite difficult. Over the past year, the Town has held multiple public information sessions, had letters mailed out, and multiple Town Board members made home visits with the residents who needed to sign easements for the project to proceed. Still, a handful of residents would not budge.

Sue Hazelton, a resident of the Town of Dunkirk, said the residents who refused to sign easements are “only gumming up the works.”

The Town does not want to lose grant funding, so it threatened to pursue eminent domain proceedings if necessary. The Town began with seeking 89 easements and chipped away at that figure for several months. Within the past month, Town Board member Jean Crane was able to secure easements from two residences, but a handful of others would not be convinced.

Town Board member Phil Leone said previously, “The people who didn’t sign are hurting all of us.”

Now, the Town is pursuing eminent domain litigation, a process that enables the government to take possession of private property for public use in exchange for “just compensation.” The process can be lengthy and costly, but with what the Town of Dunkirk stands to lose if its grant funds expire, what was initially described as a “last resort” is indeed what the Town intends to do.

Town Attorney Jeff Passafaro advised the Board on how to proceed with seeking a solution through eminent domain. He explained that attorney fees the Town faces from the eminent domain process will be spread evenly across all residents of the Shorewood Water District. That includes all of the residents who did sign easements and even those who did not. Residents of the Town outside of the district will not be charged for the process. It is up to the residents refusing to sign easements to cover the cost of their own legal representation.

“We are planning to move on this very soon,” Town Supervisor Priscilla Penfold said.