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The North County Water District has its eyes on more of Fredonia's water customers.
Eric Wies of CPL, the district's engineers, first told their November board meeting that a recent switchover of customers east and south of the Routes 20 and 60 roundabout to NCWD water is "looking good so far."
He then discussed preliminaries regarding a switchover north of the roundabout.
Wies spoke of running a line north of the roundabout to eventually connect with the town of Dunkirk water infrastructure near the Thruway. The town of Dunkirk is a member of the NCWD, which is solely supplied by the city of Dunkirk.
CPL is conducting "early explorations" of getting customers north of the roundabout onto the line, Wies said. That area is currently served by Fredonia water -- though the village is planning a project to connect with the NCWD and shut its own water treatment plant and reservoir.
Wies noted that the conversation turned early to the difficulties around installing a water line under the roundabout, then down Route 60. He suggested an alternative: Bypassing the roundabout and running it through the Lake Erie Estates trailer park, located a few yards to the northeast.
Wies said another benefit of that alternative would be that NCWD could access grant money available for water improvement projects at housing developments. He said the trailer park's owners want to expand, but claim issues with their current water system prevent that.
Also, Wies said the new line would allow Brooks-TLC's new Fredonia hospital to access an alternate water source through the NCWD. Planners had promised an alternate water source for the hospital, currently under construction on East Main Street, in response to worries surrounding Fredonia's numerous boil order disruptions in recent years.
However, until Wies spoke up, it was unclear how the hospital -- which is going up in a previously undeveloped field well within Fredonia water territory -- would have that alternate source. With the new line in, "it would be an easy pipe to cross the road," Wies said.
He concluded of the proposed new line, "We are looking to get this advanced."
Wies stated that except for customers north of the roundabout, "most everyone in Pomfret is now on North County Water District water."
The switchover of customers south and east of the roundabout was supposed to happen around Jan. 1. It happened earlier this month, with Chautauqua County health officials stating it was to take stress off Fredonia's water system -- then beleaguered by yet another boil order, along with a conservation order.
NCWD Board Chairman Dan Pacos, who is also Pomfret's town supervisor, sought to take credit for the early changeover.
"The county didn't push for it. It was Pomfret's suggestion," he said. "Our plan was to move them over as soon as (the town's) Phase 2 (water infrastructure project) was done, anyway."
Pacos agreed that the move was done early to ease the load on Fredonia's water production system.