On Feb. 18, the Chautauqua County Health Department transmitted a correspondence to the Fredonia water committee. It regarded the village water supply assessment. The department conducted a site inspection of our village water treatment plant just prior to that date. The inspection is based upon state Department of Health sanitary standards and codes. Therefore, the status and health of our existing village water treatment plant and reservoir are evaluated against these standards.

I thoroughly reviewed it again last weekend and quickly realized I must communicate the key points.

There is some good news. A total of 11 deficiencies were successfully addressed based on a May 2023 inspection. The county Health Department commended the water treatment plant and village officials for that work.

However, there are a number of significant outstanding deficiencies based on the 2025 inspection report. The list covers seven pages including the status of our reservoir, dam, spillways, piping and numerous water plant deficiencies. I specifically noted that many were considerably dated.

In fact, there were deficiencies noted since: 2008, 17 years ago, five found; 2016, nine years ago, one; 2012, 13 years ago, one; and from the 2003 inspection, 22 years ago, one.

What makes the inspection data so astounding? The fact that it exists and these deficiencies are still not yet resolved.

In summary, my point is this. Degrading infrastructure issues don’t heal by themselves.

Do the worn out brakes and tires on your car improve with time? Of course not. A good steward will maintain, periodically check for minor and especially major issues and invest the time and money to insure performance, longevity and safety.

The village of Fredonia has historically had an extremely poor record of infrastructure maintenance, upgrades and improvements. Yes, there have been some. But ask yourself this — has it been enough? Here is one example to illustrate my point: the village has had seven boil-water orders in the past five years.

The good news is we can turn this Fredonia ship around and head it in the right direction. This is our challenge and the time has come.

We must make very wise decisions, aggressively pursuing available state and federal grant funding, working with adjacent communities inter-municipally, sharing services, to name a few. All will help to improve and optimize our village government functions.

In summary, these efforts will get us pointed in the right direction. Our future is here and our future is now.

Paul Wandel is a Fredonia village trustee.