No funds in Fredonia, more problems

Editor, OBSERVER:

In the OBSERVER (Sept. 10), Trustee Kara Christina said that while village of Fredonia had an administrator, the infrastructure was bad, the water was brown, the police department had issues, the fire hall was bad, the DPW building was bad and the reservoir and water treatment plant were in poor condition.

The mayor was in her post in 2016. Why didn’t she do anything about these problems?

Because there was no money to do anything. Don’t blame things that couldn’t get done on the administrator when there was no money. They did the best they could. Ask James Sedota. He was the administrator for years.

The trustees are working people. They don’t have time to look into anything. The hired administrator has the time. That’s his job.

The mayor does not run this village. The trustees do. We do need a village administrator. On Monday, Sept. 9, the mayor, James Lynden, Christina and Michael Barris put on a good show. They should go to acting school. That was a terrible village meeting.

But of course they have all been that way since 2016 when that mayor got into office. Now with the new election she needs to leave office. Let’s vote to have a better village government in November. The only two trustees on that board who know what they’re doing are Doug Essek and Roger Britz. They don’t have a chance because the other trustees listen to this mayor, which is very unfair.

Politics don’t work in a small village. The taxpayers aren’t stupid. They will show you in the November elections. When Dale Rickert asked the question to Sedota about being the administrator, the mayor said you can’t ask questions now. You have to wait until after the meeting. Dale got upset and walked out of the meeting. I would have too!

Please village taxpayers, go out and vote for the right people. Vote for the right trustees and the best mayor to run our village.

FRANK DeJOHN,

Fredonia

We can all better the environment

Editor, OBSERVER:

I wish to respond to the article (Sept. 30) “Tree group told to branch out.” Where it is true I am trying to encourage interest and awareness of the need to plant trees, I don’t think I was overly harsh on Athenex. I stated my disappointment over the fact that Athenex changed its plans for its parking lot and, to my understanding, there would be no islands with trees and the pavement would be non-porous.

As a disciple of Peter Calthorpe (The New metropolis), I like the idea that trees should shade a parking lot “90% by ten years” (Calthorpe, 14) This would reduce the temperature on hot sunny days and, more importantly, absorb many poisonous gasses emitted from the toxic asphalt. With the increase of respiratory problems such as asthma, emphysema, and COPD, the shading of parking lots and streets is increasingly encouraged.

Just as we found out the dangers of Round-up potentially causing cancer, studies show gasses from asphalt could also contribute to cancer.

The Dunkirk area has experienced “air Quality warnings” three years in a row. I applaud the City of Dunkirk to inventory, evaluate and encourage tree planting. Awareness of the value of trees and their relationship to our health is just surfacing on human awareness. I wish to promote this awareness and form a committee in the Town of Dunkirk to begin to replace the trees we remember from our youth – the beautiful canopied Bennett Road is a far cry from what Route 60 now is. The Maple tree-lined Maple Avenue now sports a single Maple tree.

Parties interested in joining a tree committee in the Town of Dunkirk may contact Pete Miller at 467-6030 between 5 and 6 p.m.

PETER MILLER,

Dunkirk