Construction happened near the municipal parking lot on Water Street and behind the fire department on Main Street. Cassie Pinkoski of the Chautauqua County Soil and Water District described the project at a recent village Board of Trustees meeting. She was joined by others involved in the project.

“We are proud and very happy to say it’s moving along quite nicely and quite quickly,” Mayor Michael Ferguson said as he introduced them.

Jim Joy of the county’s Lake Erie Management Commission noted that the project was partially funded by the county hotel bed tax. Pinkoski later showed a graphic that gave a cost of $717,540, with $50,000 from the bed tax, $94,000 from a federal grant, and the bulk of the funding from a state Department of Environmental Conservation water quality improvement grant.

Pinkoski said the project attempted to deal with the fact that Canadaway Creek narrows within the village, particularly near Water Street, which leads to faster flow and more erosion.

Cassie Pinkoski of the Chautauqua County Soil and Water Conservation District reported about a Canadaway Creek project at a recent Fredonia Board of Trustees meeting.

“We all know the (Water Street) bridge is probably causing issues,” she said, showing historical photos of the area. “But over time you can see the gravel bar growing and choking off the whole side.”

Debris was also building up at the base of small trees and undergrowth at the site during high water events. The plants were removed so debris will not catch on them anymore.

Workers sloped back the banks to further increase the stream capacity, and put in boulders at certain points to shore up walls and channel high flows to the center of the stream bed.

The cleanup has opened up a new view of the creek and Ferguson said, “we’re hoping to get picnic tables” at the site.

Behind the fire hall, a large tree down in the creek had formed a gravel bar which was starting to cause erosion, Pinkoski said. Workers removed the tree and widened the creek at that point. A stairwell was cut down to the creek side.

Both sites “evidently had some past use of either mills or mill races or something, because the amount of concrete that was hidden in there, and the thickness and age of it, was a challenge to remove.”

Pinkoski continued, “In the spring, we’ll come back and do plantings at both sites. In the summer of next year, the third project where we got funding from is an engineered rock riffle for a fish passage at the Risley Street falls. It was brought to our attention that it’s getting too high for fish to as easily get above it. It’s dependent on storms and everything working out perfectly.”

Ferguson has sought a fishing access point near the fire hall for some time, and asked Pinkoski about it. “I think that doesn’t have the habitat that would be best,” she said. A better location would be behind Pomfret’s new town hall on Chestnut Road, she said, adding that she and Joy have already discussed it with Pomfret Town Supervisor Dan Pacos.

“We’ll be following up for the next couple years as well with plantings and managing knotweed,” Pinkoski said, “I think it’s a three-year grant for the state grant.”

Ferguson concluded, “We greatly appreciate this, it’s been a long time coming. If you just get a chance to walk down by the creek, you’re going to see a tremendous, tremendous difference.”