Call it a convenient distraction. As village water users — including those in the town of Pomfret — continue to express worries over the troubled system, leave it to Fredonia Trustee James Lynden to complain about scooters.

During last week’s meeting — after a second boil-water order in less than four months had just been lifted, Lynden got motoring on the issue of renewing the scooter contract. “I don’t agree with the idea that they should be allowed if the commercial property doesn’t want it there,” he said during his complaint session. “I mean, I pay high taxes in order to have a commercial property for my business, not to be distracted by somebody else’s business, vending their product in front of my Main Street property.”

For the record, Lynden helps set the tax levy. How he can complain about those high costs is hypocritical.

His complaints about the vehicles being left throughout the village could be a minor concern. But the contractor that handles the scooters is usually there to retrieve them — wherever the land — in a timely manner.

By the way, Lynden is a major backer of the water system that is antiquated and unreliable. That — without question — would be the biggest issue facing villagers and those at the state university.

Not the scooters.