Fredonia’s top code officer reported there was $12 million worth of new construction in the village last year. He also looked ahead to a major project on East Main Street.

Charles LaBarbera offered an upbeat year-end report to a recent Board of Trustees workshop.

“We had 292 permits (in 2025) which is good for us. Total cost of new construction was $12 million,” he said. “There were four new houses, two are finished and two they’re still working on.”

LaBarbera went on to discuss a project that will completely renovate the Crosby’s minimart and gas station at the corner of East Main and White streets.

“I’m getting ready to issue their permits probably this week. That’s a $1.25 million project. They’re tearing the building down, they’re gonna move it back, and build a bigger building. … New gas tanks too. That’s a pretty big project, so they’ll be shut down all summer long.”

LaBarbera said the store will probably close in April, and reopen in the fall.

Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson took the opportunity LaBarbera’s report offered to tout the village’s business community.

Ferguson called LaBarbera’s report “important because it shows the people of this community that there are great things happening in this community.”

The mayor spoke of “tremendous growth in our downtown core” and stated that “we are very fortunate that we have very few open storefronts in our downtown core.”

He added, “Communities don’t have this much building going on unless there’s opportunity there and people see opportunity.”