The OBSERVER is correct in pointing out in its June 26 View that the village of Fredonia is a leaky vessel.

Where the OBSERVER’s comments fall astray is by taking a slap at Trustee Michelle Twichell for anything other than perhaps her choice of words. Time and time again, Trustee Twichell was the only trustee to stand in opposition to this current board’s out of control spending.

Twichell has stood firm in her opposition to this board’s fiscal mismanagement, in spite of the nasty comments from her fellow board members regarding Fredonia’s budget and water issues. Perhaps the OBSERVER could point out who is actually responsible for the 50-plus percent increase in our village taxes?

Check her voting record. It’s not Twichell. No offense to the fine people of the city of Dunkirk. They are victims of their government’s fiscal mismanagement, just like Fredonians are. Despite Twichell’s choice of words for our good neighbors to the north, If the village of Fredonia is leaking from a hole in the hull of it’s ship, it is understandable that intelligent and concerned individuals would be wary of partnering with another municipality whose ship is sinking even deeper from a larger hole in its vessel and is in more dire straits than the village.

Twichell has also been the only trustee to question the current board’s disputable actions with regards to Fredonia’s water situation. Doing so once again in spite of nasty and insulting comments from other board members who are happy to accept incomplete information from a very well paid engineering firm that did not do their due diligence in their most recent report because they were paid by county government to make a recommendation that the Village should buy water from the North County Water District.

The county got what it paid for and the Village was given an incomplete biased report that was missing critical information.

At a recent Village Board meeting, Twichell was criticized for being reluctant to listen to the “experts” who have given biased, incomplete and incorrect information at public forums on several occasions.

What experts were the rest of the board listening to when they overspent the Village budget and exhausted the Village’s fund balance? And what does Twichell get for being stalwart? Her own Democratic party refused to endorse her.

Thank you, Trustee Michelle Twichell, for your service to the village of Fredonia.

Andrew Ludwig is a Fredonia resident.