It’s hard to believe the loss of one position could throw a village into chaos.

But that’s what’s happening in Fredonia, if you listen to trustees and the mayor.

Village officials now want to clarify duties and the clerk, treasurer and personnel specialist positions created a in 2018 as a way to replace the administrator’s position.

“The board inherited, so to speak, the mess, or the chaos which seems to be a returning word, that was created with the elimination of the administrator,'” Trustee Eva Dawn Bashaw said. “I don’t know if anyone here realizes what condition the village was left in when the administrator was gone and the person who served as a full-time mayor (Landis) was also gone. We struggled.”

Then, Mayor Doug Essek, who voted against abolishing the administrator position back in 2018, said the, “whole problem could be solved if we just would go back to a village administrator.”

It’s hard to believe a village with fewer than 10,000 residents needs nearly as many employees as the neighboring town of Pomfret that has some 4,000 more residents. It’s hard to believe one 40-hour position causes so much consternation.

Frankly, the village needs to figure out how to manage. A village the size of Fredonia shouldn’t need a full time presence in Village Hall to keep the trains running on time. One would think one well-timed meeting every couple of days should keep the bills paid, provide a time to deal with employee issues and to make sure department heads are handling village business.

We’re not talking about doing long division here. The public’s business is done quietly and professionally in similarly sized villages throughout the nation without a full-time administrator or a full-time mayor.

It’s time to quit complaining and figure out a system that works.