Over the summer, work was being done on the current Brooks-TLC property in Fredonia.

Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson revealed Wednesday the state has offered funding for the village’s plans to get water from the town of Pomfret and the North County Water District.

Ferguson disclosed the information at the end of a speech to begin a Board of Trustees workshop, where he blasted rumors that Brooks-TLC will not build its proposed new hospital on Main Street.

“I want to start the meeting by talking a little bit about rumors and innuendos,” the mayor began. “I just warn people to not listen to every rumor that you think comes down the pike. A couple of weeks ago, I had at least five to six people come out and say — well, first of all, I want to say, it’s a good day in Fredonia. But (they said) the $77 million awarded to the hospital from New York State has been rescinded, the project”s not happening, it’s been defeated, it’s going nowhere.

“You’re absolutely right, the state did not give the hospital $77 million.They gave them $223 million. They will start work today, as a matter of fact, on a 133,000-square-foot footprint, which is larger than the original footprint.

“That’s just one example of the things that you hear at coffee, the things that you hear at church, the things that you hear when you run into folks. Take everything that is said with a grain of salt because it can come back to be untruthful, and that is just one example.”

For the record, the state is not giving Brooks-TLC $223 million, as Ferguson noted. That’s the estimated cost of the project at this time. The state is contributing $74 million — and possibly more, but a bulk of the other funds will need to come from Kaleida Health and philanthropic contributions.

Ferguson then began to read a letter from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office informing the village that it is eligible for up to $12 million in funding on its plans to get water from Pomfret. “I won’t go through this, but essentially what this is, is funding the transition from our current water treatment plant to our connection with the town of Pomfret and the North County Water District.”

He added a little bit later, “For me, personally, I think it’s a good day for the village. We got our hospital, the hospital will have its water, and there are other things we can focus on to make our community even better than it is today.”

Trustee Michelle Twichell wondered if the state’s funding would be broken down into the items that it would pay for.

“It will be used for the items that break down the project. It’s not broken down in the letter of acceptance, but it will be broken down as we go through the (village engineers) Labella,” Ferguson said. “Once we identify what the cost items are, that will be broken down.”

Twichell insisted that the breakdown should be listed in the resolution which trustees would have to approve to accept the money. Trustee Jon Espersen replied, “I think all we would need to do is get Labella’s scope of work, the project that they list at the total cost of $17.5 million, and we can include that with it, because that’s what it will be used for.”

Editor John D’Agostino contributed to this report.