North County Water District board chairman Dan Pacos said last week that he and district Executive Director Alison Vento are representing the entity in talks with the village of Fredonia.

District board member Rich Lewis, the town of Pomfret supervisor, asked Pacos during the NCWD June board meeting about the representation at the talks. Lewis was curious after reading about the Fredonia-NCWD meetings in the OBSERVER, he said.

“We’re invited to their (water project) planning meetings. Alison and I are going,” Pacos replied.

“We’re invited, and it’s really just them and their engineers (LaBella) and the Health Department,” Vento added.

Pacos, who is also the Pomfret town supervisor, has a working relationship with Vento that predates the North County Water District. Vento was Pomfret town clerk before getting appointed last year to a position as executive director of all Chautauqua County water and sewer districts.

Fredonia is planning a multi-year, multi-million dollar project to connect with the North County Water District, through the town of Pomfret. The water district’s sole supplier is the city of Dunkirk treatment plant. Opponents of the plan, who want the village to retain and fix its own treatment plant and reservoir, have banded together into the “Save Our Reservoir” group.

NCWD board member Dave Hazelton, the former mayor of the village of Brocton, seemed surprised about the opposition.

“We closed down our plant, had a public hearing — nobody cared,” he said. “We’re in better shape because of doing that.”

Pacos sarcastically responded, “Welcome to Fredonia.”